I mentioned my love of gardening and plants in a previous post, and those few hardy perennials who actually read this Blog have seen my cactus blooms. I have had many more flowers than these, all winter long, because I garden under lights. I have not had the chance, since I moved to an apartment in a big city, to garden in a real plot of dirt. But I have an array of artificial plant lights as well as some sunny windows, and I'm able to raise and keep quite a variety of vegetation. Recently I did an inventory of my plants so here's a look at my plant collection.

Pothos ivy, Rhaphidophora aurea, three pots.

Climbing philodendron, Philodendron scandens, three pots.

Peace lily, Spathyphyllium wallisii, four pots. These leafy clusters are descendants of a single bunch which I bought back in 1977.

Dracaena palm, one pot. I inherited this plant in 1990 from one of my previous workplaces.

Aloe plants, Aloe variegata, seven pots, five large (12" diameter, 12" high) and two small. These aloes are descendants of plants I grew from seed, starting in 1984.

One pot of sansevieria, Sansevieria trifasciata, which needs almost no maintenance.

Under the lights: one pot mint, one pot oregano. (I don't grow any of that other kind of herb.)
Six pots of geraniums, Pelargonium zonale, four red blossoms, two pink. The red blossoms are an orangey-red color, known to artists as "cadmium red light."
Six pots of african violets, Saintpaulia ionantha, three lavender blossoms, one purple blossom with white edging (picotee), one white blossom, and one pink. All are in bloom. The word ionantha means "purple flower" in Greek.

Nine cactus pots of different varieties, including the two which flowered. Some of these I grew from seed. One of them is a white hairy pillar cactus which I acquired when it was the size of an egg, and it is now more than a foot tall. Cacti and succulents do well in the dryness of my dwelling.

One dendrobium orchid, which I got as a give-away from a friend a few years ago. It bloomed in 2002 but has fallen on hard times. Nevertheless, it is not dead yet.

I plan to add more plants as spring approaches. In the summer, I move all my cacti and succulents out onto my terrace, which also is like a desert during those months.

See my garden in a sunny window opening onto the terrace.

Fluxions of ivy

I have been reading an inspiring book called "Great Physicists: the life and times of leading physicists from Galileo to Hawking," by William H. Cropper. I've read the chapters on Galileo and Newton, and as I continue studying physics, I'll re-visit the book to read more biographies and meet more discoveries. Cropper's account of Newton contains the best short introduction to calculus I have read so far. I did not know, before I read this enlightening chapter, that I have already been working with derivatives for some time. Calculus is like a tough plant that grows even in the desert environment of my study.

On another note, many congratulations to New England Patriots fans (myself and my Massachusetts family included) on the Super Bowl win. Both the Red Sox and the Patriots in less than a year…how can we stand all this success?

Posted at 11:58 pm | link