Melantrys’ Page

Today will mark the launch of - hopefully - a series of informative posts on… well… flora.
Otherwise known as plants.
Or “that green stuff with the nice colourful blobs”.

Whichever definition you prefer¹ I am going to take you places² that you’ve probably never been to before: to see some more… unusual… plants.

Almost everyone has heard of lilies, and a lot of people have actually seen lilies.

What most people are completely unaware of though are the few fascinating³ and rare species this particular plant has developed.

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Lilium Erotica

lilium erotica

A rather big flowered species of lily that produces a huge amount of blooms in showy colours, smells extremly strongly and produces twice the amount of pollen that most other lily species produce.
Possesses a strong sex drive.

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Lilium Perversum

lilium perversum

A subspecies of lilium erotica.
Possesses a strong, uncurbed sex drive.
Actively pollinates everything from unrelated plants like hibiscus over animals to humans.
The pollen is very aggressive and almost impossible to wipe off. In case of contact it is recommended to wash it off with soap and water. Feel free to liberally use disinfectant - you never know where the pollen has been before.

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1. you’re even allowed to make up your own [back]
2. figuratively speaking [back]
3. if at times somewhat bizarre [back]

A comment reminded me of something long overdue:
pics of the greenhouse being in use.

The outside seen from various angles:

The inside:

The terrace:

A so-called “balcony tomato” for cultivation in a pot…

… among the first we bought, and thus already starting on tomato production.

Although some of the tomatoes outside the greenhouse aren’t far behind:

tomato blooms

Hm, beans…

And back inside some of the seeds have been busy:

Don’t always believe “best by” dates. These Okra seeds were only supposed to keep till December ‘07 - and the package had already been opened!

The following pics are of the new ones I came across by accident in a home-improvement market. It was the only package they had (left?), and I immediately grabbed it.
The okras on the package look darker and more shiny than I know them, so let’s see what the plants will produce - if the filthy German weather doesn’t kill them dispite the greenhouse, that is.

And why are they “spineless” anyway??? Got no backbone, the fucking cowards, eh?!

+++ out of cheese error +++

+++ melon +++ melon +++ melon +++

sky northwest by west

northwest by west, zoomed

northwest by north

not very successful attempt to capture the purple sky I saw to the northeast

the west

the west, zoomed

plane leaving con trails strategically placed to the southwest

crescent moon and con trails

a slightly southerly west again

This is what I saw this morning from my bathroom window. I just had to hurry out again to get my cam and share…

dawn (with flash)

dawn (without flash)

more dawn (without flash)

yet more dawn (without flash)

Here’s some Christmas fog from this morning for Lynette….

White Christmas

*sniff, sniff*

“Damn, why is this flower so much smaller than the others…?”

bzzzzzzzzzz

“Another of those weird small ones…”

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Aren’t bumblebees cute…?

… of the sky after a hail/rain storm shortly before sundown. Everything outside was cast into a weird murky red light.
The cam is doing its best to show you…

A few more pics I took yesterday…:

Like I mentioned in my comment, one might almost think she wants to show the little one’s how it’s done.

My first count was off. If I include the bloom that fell off, she brought forth 20 buds.

The first opened this night, so this morning I took a shot of seven blooms, plus the one lying on the window sill.

old show-off

During the day a couple more opened or half opened and the lowest one from last night is already shrivelling, so I’d say depending on how you count them +/- eleven are open now.

And - yes - one of these days I’m gonna wash the bird droppings off of that window there.

One December many, many years ago a little cactus and its brothers got purchased by a very thoughtless woman. In case of the little cacti thoughtless to the point of evil.

Like many thoughtless women she is mainly occupied with making cute gestures.
That year she gave all of her birthday guests a little reminder of the nice party they had attended - a cactus. And what with Christmas not being far away she sprayed all the cacti with snow spray. Awwwwwwwwwwwwww, lookey, how cute! Lookey how cute the suffocating cacti look! Awwwwwwww!
I presume the little cactus’ brothers all died a slow death, but let us not dwell on this.

One little cactus was given to us, and we - fuming with rage (and getting covered in thorns) - scrubbed the little cactus as gently as humanly possible clean under running warm water. Not all of the spray came off, and some thorns were lost, but after a long period of waiting and watching the little cactus it became clear that it had survived.

It started growing, further cracking up the spray remains and enlarging the clean surface areas. Brave little cactus!
All those years it slowly grew, but it never came to real health. It grew very crooked and with a “waist” that was way too slim for it.
One fatal day not too long ago the not so little anymore cactus fell off the window sill, breaking in two!

Not wanting to give up on the more healthy upper part of the cactus yet, our father tried planting it into a flowerpot. And it survived.
And now, after all these years, this upper part brought forth its first blooms ever.

the two halves

We never would have thought it from the bedraggled and crippled way the cactus used to look, but the blooms proved it to be our third (and fourth?) Königin der Nacht (Queen of the night).

And - lo and behold! - last night the little cactus opened its very first bloom. I suppose the others will follow suit tonight.

And it’s not even alone in this timid display of its beauty and fragrance, one of the older ones was keeping it company, opening three of its blooms that same night:

the ones who never knew snow spray