Anthurium no. 0771 "Nina Flowers"

The first inflorescence Nina produced was disappointing; the spathe didn't open fully, and the spathe color was in the same general red-pink area as so many other seedlings. But the second time, it was actually kind of nice:

I mean, yes, the color hasn't changed and is kind of ordinary. But it's well-executed. If this is more typical of what the seedling's going to do in the future, then it might deserve the name Nina Flowers.¹

The leaves are mostly free of thrips damage, and the plant as a whole is fairly full, with a moderate amount of suckering.

So, Nina's probably a keeper. My only regret is that the bloom isn't anywhere near as dramatic and stunning as the queen. Certainly there's a place in my world for solidly executed blooms that aren't particularly flashy, but it seems odd to name one of those "Nina Flowers."

In fairness, though, I'm not sure there are any Anthurium seedlings which are complicated and dramatic enough to deserve the name. "Nina Flowers" might be more appropriate for a Schlumbergera: they're at least more angular and complexly shaded than Anthuriums.

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¹ (A prominent Colorado-based drag queen with heavily stylized but impressive and precise makeup skills; also the namesake of my now-deceased anole.)

Schlumbergera seedling no. 094

Naming this one is easy and hard at the same time. Easy because I really like all four name finalists (Deer Devil,¹ Harriet Tubman,² Pele's Lipstick,³ and Some Clowns⁴), hard because I'm not sure the seedling is worthy of a good name.

Why unworthy? Well, there was some thrips scarring. I've chosen photos for the post that show less damage, but it was there. Also, some of the seedlings have produced petals which shade from white on the "tube," through orange and red, ending with magenta at the very tips,⁵ and 094A seems to be somewhat inclined that way --

-- but isn't committing to it as much as the others have. Since this was only its first year blooming, I don't know whether it's going to do this with more conviction in the future, or whether it's just experimenting this year. If it's going to get fully on board the magenta-tip train next year, it should get a really good name, and if it's not, I shouldn't worry about it getting a good name.

So, with that in mind, which name do I use?

I think Harriet Tubman is best reserved for a seedling that is unambiguously awesome.

I also feel that way about Pele's Lipstick, but at the same time, I feel pretty strongly that that name should go to a seedling with the white-orange-red-magenta coloration. 094A is the last seedling of that type for the year, so if I don't want to wait until next year to use it, this would be the seedling to use it on.

Deer Devil works just as well, or better, for a red seedling, though it's also a good name for a seedling I'm not sure will be a good one. So I suppose I have to hold on to it too.

Some Clowns is color-appropriate with or without the magenta, and it honors a person I'm fond of, so I don't want to drop it, either.

So I thought about those three options for a few days. Sometimes when I have multiple options available and I'm having trouble settling on one, thinking about how I'd feel if I flipped coins and X result came up can help eliminate a few choices. After running a few of those mental experiments, I decided that Deer Devil would be disappointing, and Pele's Lipstick would make me wonder whether I was wasting a good name on a seedling with the wrong coloration, so it winds up being 094A Some Clowns.

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¹ Previously considered for 106A Jaws of Elmo and 192A Oney Judge, and apparently destined to be one of those names that keeps coming back until I break down and use it.
² Surely I don't have to explain how and why Harriet Tubman is awesome?
³ (suggested last year by reader Paul for seedling 217A Blood Frenzy)
⁴ Previously considered for seedling 165A Assertive, and one of the names that would honor a non-famous person who's been personally important to me, for good or ill.
⁵ Most notably 083A Psychedelic Bunny, but also 067A Cyndi Lauper, 074A Vroom, 079A Yayoi Kusama, 082A Strawberry Madeline, 106A Jaws of Elmo, 107 Nova Prospekt, 176A The Quality Of Mercy, 192A Oney Judge, and 217A Blood Frenzy, to varying degrees.

Schlumbergera seedling no. 120

Seedling 120 was one of the last few seedlings to bloom this year, so I only have one or two flowers¹ to evaluate, but it's a nice enough flower, I think. Seed parent was the NOID white, pollen parent presumed to be the NOID magenta because . . . well, because look at it.

Since it arrived late, I didn't have a chance to come up with name finalists for it, but it seems like I've been throwing out a lot of the pre-selected names lately anyway, so maybe that's not so terrible.

I tried plugging these colors into TinEye, just for old times' sake, getting the colors from two different photos on the off chance that they might be different enough that TinEye would deliver different results. Which I did (first set of colors; second set), but neither group was terribly useful: the first was all flowers, breast cancer, and gay pride parades (plus one image of Pepto-Bismol residue in a cup, which pleased me for some reason); the second was almost entirely flowers. I'm surprised there wasn't anything related to Barbie dolls, or to girls' toy aisles in general, 'cause this is exactly that color. Maybe people on Flickr don't take photos of toy aisles.

Anyway.

Initially, I was inclined to go through the normal process of coming up with four options and then eliminating three of them, but the news has been very . . . distracting, lately. (I'm writing this at 9 AM on Thursday; by the time you read it, I expect at least three more bombshells will have dropped.) So not only do I not really have time to go through that whole process, but there's a pretty obvious choice staring me in the face anyway. I already felt kinda bad about rejecting the name Barbara Jordan for seedling 176A, and it sure feels like an appropriate time to invoke her name.

Therefore, 120A Barbara Jordan.

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¹ (can't remember)