Very Large Numbers

If Google's count can be trusted -- and why wouldn't it be; it's Google -- this is PATSP's 2000th post. It is not at all clear to me how I should be feeling about this, but I think we can all agree that it's a pretty big number, blogularly speaking. Consequently, there should be some Gazania photos ('New Day' mix, if you're keeping track), as Gazania is the Official Celebratory Flower of PATSP.

We also passed the one million word mark last November. Is there really that much to be said about plants? Probably not really, but, you know, I repeat myself sometimes.

Of course, we also got the three-millionth page view at the end of last March, too, so I guess people don't mind a little redundancy.

What's in the future for PATSP? I don't exactly know. For a lot of different reasons, I'm less interested in plants than I used to be. This has more or less killed the plans for the book. I feel bad about that -- I wanted to read it just as much as some of you did -- but I just can't force myself to work on that now. I did try. This may (MAAAAAAY) mean that the plant profiles are coming back in the next six to twelve months.

Having said that, the blog itself will probably endure. I am uncomfortable with having this much information about myself in Google's hands, and have been for some time, but that particular toothpaste has been out of the tube for years; nothing much to be done about it now. I do still have plenty of ideas for posts, including a solid half-dozen ideas right this minute, so my personal expectation is that Google will give up on hosting PATSP for free before I give up on writing it.

I'll still be surprised if we reach post #4000, but my surprise is not a reliable predictor of things. So we'll see what happens. 2000 posts is still an accomplishment, so let's have one more Gazania:

Blogiversary

I've now completed a fourth year of blogging at PATSP.

I'm not sure how I feel about that, or whether I feel anything about that. The longer I do this, the harder it becomes to imagine doing anything else, so the less noteworthy it seems. I've been blogging, so I keep blogging, because I don't remember how I filled my time before blogging. It's not a bad thing, it's not a good thing, it's just how life is.

Maybe I'm not in the blogiversary spirit today. (Bloggy Claus is going to come down the tube and leave spam in my inbox for sure!)

Ah, well. I've been saving Gazania photos for this for five months,¹ so let's break 'em out.




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¹ (Gazania is the Official Celebratory Flower of PATSP. Even, apparently, when I don't feel particularly celebratory.)

Site-related: Blogiversary

Today is the third anniversary of PATSP's first post, hence the Gazania photos. (If you're new: Gazanias are the official celebratory flower of PATSP.)

Good to Grow just turned one a few days ago, on October 12, as did All Andrew's Plants. Life Among the Leaves had its first birthday a few days before that (Oct 8). This seems like a disproportionate number of houseplant-related blogs to all be launching in the same month. I mean, there are lots and lots of blogs out there, so it stands to reason that there would also be lots and lots of blogs starting in October, but it still strikes me as interesting. Is there something about October that makes people want to start houseplant blogs?


I don't know. I personally started PATSP in October because I'd started working in the garden center in August, and it took me two months to decide that I wanted to write a blog, decide that I had enough stuff going on at work to write about, and write a few introductory posts so there'd be something to look at when and if people arrived to read it. Nothing special about October per se.

But on the off chance that there is something special about this time of year, and that there might be people reading this blog right now who are just waiting for a title or something, let me throw a few title ideas at you. (If you don't have a blog and want to use one of these, feel free to take one. It's not like I need more than one blog.)


If you spend as much time playing video games as you do propagating plants, perhaps you should consider the title First-Person Rooter. (The address http://firstpersonrooter.blogspot.com is available.)

Or maybe you're more into cactus and succulents. I think Cactus Makes Perfect would work nicely for any succulent enthusiast with an experimental, trial-and-error approach to indoor gardening. Or outdoor gardening, too, I suppose. It might also work if you're a Three Stooges fan. (http://cactusmakesperfect.blogspot.com/ is available.)

Alt-rock fans with a harsh approach to underperforming plants might blog at The Violent Stemmes, though I think it would maybe have to be a group blog to make any sense. Or maybe it wouldn't make any sense regardless. Not sure about that. (http://violentstemmes.blogspot.com/ is available.)

Oh yeah -- I should probably mention that they're all going to be puns like this. Sorry I didn't think to warn you earlier. I realize that puns are the lowest form of humor, and that even when people find them amusing, they still groan, and that puns fall flat if the audience doesn't know the references. But they're not boring, at least: a groan is better than a meh.

If it helps, it was fairly hard work coming up with them, and that's time I'm never going to get back. Spreadsheets were even involved. (Truth.)


A photographer with a special fondness for botanical and nature photos might write at Leafcake Pictures. Especially appropriate if there's a little artistic nudity possible. (http://leafcake.blogspot.com/ is taken, though devoid of posts, but http://leafcakepictures.blogspot.com/ is available.)

The one I'd personally be most interested in reading, Curses! Soiled Again!, would be the daily musings of a supervillain, with emphasis on his/r home garden, houseplants, and other hobbies. Who wouldn't want to watch the Joker's ficus tree grow, check out the blooms on Mytzlplyk's orchid collection, or hear about the spider mites on Magneto's crotons? Am I right? (http://cursessoiledagain.blogspot.com/ and http://soiledagain.blogspot.com/ are both available.)


Anyway. Just throwing them out there. If any of these speaks to you, feel free. 'Tis the season.

And here goes year four.

Milestone: 1,000,000 page views / PATSP De-Lurking Day

UPDATE: At 12:05 AM, CDT, on Saturday, September 11, 2010, someone in Mosman, New South Wales, Australia looked at the Salvia elegans profile (which they'd found via Google) and became hit #1000000. I can prove part of that:


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Celebratory Gazania.
Unless something really unusual happens, PATSP is going to get its 1,000,000th page view at some point today. Maybe very early tomorrow, if traffic is slow.


I feel like I should say something about this, but I don't know what one is supposed to say. A million page views wasn't something I considered or anticipated when I started this. (Which is good, because if I'd had that goal to begin with I would have been very depressed. You know how many I got the first day? Seventy-six. And a lot of that was just because it was the first day and people were coming from Garden Web out of curiosity: by the third day, that had dropped to twenty-one.)


But then, none of this has really gone the way I was expecting. The idea when I started was that this would be practice space for book-writing, and a place to share pictures of the stuff I was working with at my then-new garden center job. A little over 660,000 words and 1145 posts later, there's still no book (When would I work on a book, for fuck's sakes? The blog takes 40-45 hours a week.), and there's also no longer a job.


In short, blogging has turned me into an unemployed loser, just like people always said it would.


Or possibly I was an unemployed loser already, deep down, and blogging just unlocked my potential. There's a definite argument to be made there.¹


Whatever. This is really more about you guys. I mean, you're the ones who loaded the pages. So:


Some websites have occasional "de-lurking" days, where people who visit a blog but never leave comments are invited to do so. So just for today, if you normally never comment, or even if you do, say hi. I don't care so much what you say -- leave a link to your own blog, tell me what you do for a living or how many grandkids you have, tell me you like my shoes -- whatever.


I will still delete anything resembling spam, though, so please do try to sound like a human being.



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¹ I would probably be sounding happier about the milestone if I were feeling better physically: I've been having a lot of (literal) headaches this week, and don't know why. The list of possible causes includes: sleep disruption, unusual levels of physical exertion, dehydration, allergies, stress, eyestrain, and changes in the weather/humidity. Or the husband could be poisoning the food. I mean, he says he isn't, but of course that's exactly what he'd have to say if he really were.
And it could be the case that none of these are correct and it's some mysterious and unimaginable ninth thing, though my personal guess is that it's some combination of stress and the change in weather.

Mouse and Trowel winners announced

Celebratory Gazanias.
So the winners of the Mouse and Trowel awards were announced yesterday, and PATSP won for two categories: Best Indoor Gardening Blog, and Post of the Year (for the Zombie Apocalypse post). I didn't acknowledge it yesterday because:

1) We're still dealing with some dog diarrhea issues here (she has yet to go in the house, which is very, very good, and believe me we're appreciative of our good luck on that particular count, but she's also gotten us up in the middle of the night for two nights running), and the sleep-deprivation that goes with that;
2) I did get the box of plants from the post office I mentioned in yesterday's post, and there was repotting and picture-taking to be done;
3) I didn't exactly know what to say.

The traditional Streptocarpus of Public Recognition.
But so I guess what one does in this situation is, one thanks the people involved. So.

• A big thanks to Colleen Vanderlinden and the M&T sponsors, for setting the whole thing up in the first place. I know a lot of work goes into these things.
• Thank-you to everyone who stopped by PATSP to see whether it was worth voting for during the last couple weeks, and a second thank-you to everybody who decided it was worth your vote.
  
• I know it sounds kind of weird, but I want to acknowledge the other blogs in the Indoor Gardening category: Get in the Garden, Indoor Garden-er, Nature Assassin, and Plant Zone. If you aren't already visiting them, you really ought to be. When people said (as people did, often) that Indoor Gardening was an especially tough category in which to vote, they weren't kidding. Please, go visit them and leave them messages about how they were totally robbed. 'Cause they were.
• Should probably also thank the husband, who makes it possible for me to spend almost all my time blogging or watering, and without whom PATSP would be literally impossible, or at least updated a lot less frequently.
• Finally, I have to thank the zombies, whose tireless dedication and perseverance inspires us all. More brains indeed!

Mouse and Trowel Nominations

PATSP has been nominated for multiple Mouse & Trowel awards. Which is kind of weird. I mean, I'd thought maybe one nomination.

But instead, I'm up for:

Best Container Gardening Blog
Best Indoor Gardening Blog
Best Writing¹
Post of the Year (for the Zombie Apocalypse list)

Obligatory Gazania of Celebration. Gazanias are the official celebratory flower of PATSP since, like, forever.
Or maybe it should be we. "We" are up for four awards. I mean, there's only the one of me, but it sounds classier if it's plural, right? More meaningful somehow? Or does that just make me sound like a crazy person? (Or, more accurately: does that make us sound like a crazy person?²)

The competition on Indoor Gardening Blog is going to be especially painful, as I know (in the internet sense) three out of the four non-PATSP blogs on the list: Plant Zone, Indoor Garden-er, and Nature Assassin. Even more painful is my sudden realization that, of my previous ten posts, only two of them were even remotely related to indoor gardening.

*wince*

(In my defense: it's spriiiiiiing, with all the flowers outside that other people have worked so hard to grow for me to take pictures of! I can't disappoint those people by not photographing their plants, can I?)

Anyway. Final voting goes through 17 May. Be careful about impulsive clicking: once you vote, it appears that you can't change your vote. Or maybe you can, and I just can't figure out how.

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¹ (!!!)
² People? Persons? We're all agreed on "crazy," right?

Personal-ish: Good News All Over the Place

At long last, after several months of taking all the plants to the kitchen sink to be watered individually, I can water plants in a bathtub with a detachable showerhead again. The degree of overall life improvement this represents can hardly be overstated. Watering has just gotten much, much faster, because I can now water more than one plant at a time. I can also keep the plants dusted a little better, because now I can spray them down with water without it getting all over the kitchen floor.¹ This will also, in theory, keep the spider mites, if not the scale and mealybugs so much, somewhat in check. Also, the rearrangements necessary for installing a shower/tub in the plant room have left me with a bit of open space where, hopefully, the Hibiscus rosa-sinensis that were so terribly afflicted with mites (link) can recover and resprout and stop looking so sad and pathetic all the time.

The watering station. Note that it's sitting on a couple feet of cinder blocks, that the shower head is much lower than anybody would ever want a shower head in an actual shower for human beings, and that the temperature-control knob is relatively small. The temperature-control thing is a big, big problem (I spend large chunks of time trying to get a water temperature that's not going to scald or shock the plants.), but the other two things are deliberate. It's also kind of a problem that the faucet controls are all on the left side, but I am right-handed, and this means that if I'm not careful, the connection for the detachable showerhead will knock over all the plants when I try to use it. But this can, we think, be worked around.
And and and -- the whole arrangement is looking significantly better for my back than the scenario in the apartment was before we moved, because the shower is actually raised a couple feet off the floor, meaning I don't have to bend over repeatedly in order to put things in and take things out, which you would think that my back would get used to doing that if I was having to do it a hundred times a day, several days in a row, but it never, ever did.

I am also thinking that maybe the scale on the Ficus benjamina (link to post about the discovery of the scale) may have been misdiagnosed,² though I bought neem oil anyway.

Also I just bought five new plants semi-recently (mostly succulents: the Coralville Lowe's has suddenly decided to sell plants again, after a long winter where they mostly didn't: it's a welcome development, but leaves me wondering why they haven't had plants before now), which I'll show you later, and just in general things are looking better for me than they have in a while.

Therefore, we should have a Gazania picture, as Gazanias are the Official Celebratory Flower of PATSP, and some of this seems like it's worth celebrating. So voilà:


This whole post, obviously, is what you call "tempting fate," but I'm in a good mood now so I don't even care.

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¹ It still kinda gets all over the plant room floor. But less so, and the plant-room floor is concrete, not wood like the kitchen floor is, so it doesn't matter as much if it does. And most of the plant-room plants would be thrilled to have the extra humidity anyway.
     In any case, everything always needs to be dusted, because every single step in the home-improvement process so far appears to require generating large amounts of dust, and dust cuts back the amount of light plants can receive, so it's fairly important to stay current on that.
² I should have taken pictures. I thought of it, at the time, but I figured it was clear enough that it was scale, and I was upset about finding them anyway, and I was already somewhat behind on watering, so I didn't bother. Now I'm wishing that I had, because some stuff isn't adding up -- it doesn't make sense that plants that were very probably never even in the same room together, that were always watered several days apart,^a could have gotten scale at the same time. Also 1) I look at the plants every fourteen days: how could a scale problem suddenly appear and get that bad that quickly? 2) How can the Ficus have scale, when the bug-prone plants near it (Dizygotheca, Breynia, Cordyline) did not? (And oh, yes, did I ever look closely.) 3) Since when is it normal for scale to congregate on the tops of the leaves, instead of underneath? And why only on certain specific branches, that weren't even touching one another? 4) Why did I never see any crawlers, only adults? 5) Why aren't they coming back yet?
     Plus, I noticed while trying to clean construction dust off of the 'Margarita' Ficus for the billionth time, just wiping the leaves is enough to cause small pinprick injuries that bleed sap, which can dry to a brown, slightly-domed shape that resembles scale, so now the theory is forming in my mind that maybe the Ficus was injured in a widespread but patchy way following a watering, which caused the leaves to bleed sap, which when dried looked like scale.
I don't remember beating the plant with a wire brush or kicking the plant down the stairs -- which if my "injury" theory is correct, something like one of those would have had to happen -- but I do recall there being some sparks flying from a metal grinder being used in the room, during the watering-station install, and I've picked what I believe are melted metal bits out of a plastic pot I was storing in the general vicinity of the Ficus, and in theory that could explain the suddenness and the odd distribution. Also I'm not seeing any new stuff on the Ficus that looks like scale, so maaaaaaaybe it wasn't scale after all.
I'm not sounding the all-clear just yet, and I'm still treating the plant as though it had scale, but the possibility exists that one of my problems has been fixed, and another of my problems was never one of my problems.
The Neoregelias definitely had scale, for sure, still. But things are looking relatively good even there; I've done the alcohol rub-down with them twice now, and the second time I didn't even see anything that looked like scale, so things are looking up on that front as well.
          ^a My plant-watering spreadsheet sorts plants alphabetically by rooms, so during every watering cycle, I start with the ones in the basement, then the living room, then my office, then the husband's office, then the plant room. Which I have only just realized spells "BLOOP." And, within a given room, I generally go in the same order: start at one end of the room and work my way to the other side. The Neoregelias that had scale were at the end of the basement group, and the Ficus was four rooms later, at the end of the plant-room group, so not only is it extremely unlikely that they ever touched one another, it's extremely unlikely that I would ever have touched one and then the other within the same day.

Mr. Subjunctive: the Nina Interview

I noticed not too long ago that I was going to have my 500,000th page hit at PATSP soon, and I thought I should do something special for the occasion (besides Gazania pictures: if you've been reading the blog long enough, you know Gazanias are the official PATSP flower of celebration). On Poor Richard's Almanac, in the comments for this thread, our friend Ben suggested that maybe Nina could guest-write a post for the occasion. So I asked her, and she said okay, but it turned out that she can't muster enough force to press the keys on my computer's keyboard, so I had to transcribe, and then I figured as long as I had to be there anyway, she may as well just make it an interview with me, so that's what we're doing. (I think the main reason Nina agreed to doing an interview is because it sounded like less work.)

Anyway. So we passed 500,000 early in the day yesterday, and so here, in celebration, is the interview. Nina's dialogue is in boldface, mine is in regular type.

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So I just jump in and start asking questions?

Pretty much.

Okay. What kind of crickets do you like to eat, the brown ones or the black ones?

Well, I'm not big on eating any crickets, actually.

Ah. A mealworms man.

Not really.

So what, flies, then?

Maybe we could sort of direct the conversation away from food?

Whatever you say. How has blogging changed your life? Also please tell me what blogging is.

Well, it's -- wait a minute. You didn't read the background papers I gave you?

I skimmed them.

That was one of the things I explained in the background papers.


That was a million pages long! You actually expected me to read all that?

Well yes. I don't just write long documents for the hell of it.

Jeez. My bad. I'll read next time. Just tell me what blogging is so we can get this over with.

Blogging is writing. On the internet.

I see. What sorts of things do you write about?

Mostly stuff the plants are doing. Occasionally you, or graffiti, or . . . you know, stuff. Whatever. Sometimes I do plant profiles, where I research a particular plant and write about where it comes from and how to take care of it and stuff.

So blogging pays well?

It doesn't pay at all, actually. You know, I really wish you had just read the information I gave you.

It doesn't pay at all. So you're writing long documents for the hell of it and putting them on-line even though you just, not thirty seconds ago, told me that you don't write long documents for the hell of it?

Holy crap. I'm getting called out on contradictions by a lizard.

Just answer the question, please.

Um, yeah. I guess. Or no. It's complicated. It's not about the money, obviously. But there are rewards to it too. People leave comments on the stuff I post, and sometimes I can ask questions and people will answer them, or whatever. There's sort of a community thing there. Engaging with other people and all.


Interacting with this on-line community is better than interacting with people face-to-face?

Well, since this is mainly going to be seen on-line, I'm going to have to say yes. On-line people are vastly superior.

Very diplomatic. What do you do when you're feeling frustrated because you really want to lay eggs but can't? Or can you lay eggs?

No, I can't lay eggs. I'm to understand this is a problem you've experienced?

Sometimes. But I'm asking about you.

Well I don't . . . humans don't lay eggs, so much. Actually. And I'm a male, too, so even if humans did lay eggs, this wouldn't be a problem I personally would have.

Wait. You're a male? Where's your pink throat fan, then?

Well, again, human, not anole, so no throat fan.

Well this is embarrassing.

Not at all. You'd be shocked how many people can't tell male and female anoles apart, either. To answer the intent of your original question, though, maybe a hobby would be good for those frustrating moments? Though I'm not sure what would be good for someone without opposable thumbs. Maybe you could express yourself through dance?

You think I should dance?

Well you can't take up crochet, or painting, so. . . . I mean you don't have to. I'm just throwing it out there as a suggestion. Lizards do dance sometimes.

Hmm. I'd like you to get me some of that water.

You really don't. It doesn't work like that in real life. I could bring you some tequila sometime, though.

Tequila will do that?

We'll, it'd sure as hell do something. I don't know if it'd make you dance. [pause] Usually it just makes people think they can dance.

So is this the interview going well?

I'm really not sure. It's not striking me as being very well-focused.

What were you expecting? It's my first interview.

And you're a lizard.

I don't see what that has to do with anything.

Some of your better reptiles will read the background information before charging into an interview.

Hmph. Just for that: if you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?

I don't know. What kind of a dumb question is that?

You can't just say it's a dumb question. You have to answer.

No I don't.

Yes you do! It's an interview! You have to answer all the questions!


Okay fine. A pine.

Why a pine?

Okay, seriously, this is the last question I'm answering.

Aw, already?

A pine because they're slightly prickly but they're fairly stable. Also they like cold weather. Or maybe they don't like it, but they handle it well.

And also they smell.

Back in the cage, you.

Hiatus / Color Scheme Changes

PATSP will be on hiatus from 22-25 September. New posts will resume on the 26th.

(Celebratory Gazania picture.)

REPEATEDLY EDITED TO ADD: I'm really tired of the current PATSP color scheme (which I've had for almost two years now), and early attempts to change and get feedback were mixed, so I've quickly whipped up five options for everybody to vote for and against. I won't necessarily use the one that gets the most votes in favor, but I definitely will not use the one that gets the most votes against.

#1 is red-brown with chartreuse accents. It goes with a header picture of Solenostemon scutellarioides 'Gay's Delight' and was reviled and despised by Celtic Rose and Anonymous.

#1

#2 Is primarily dark blue with light blue, light green, and white accents. It goes with a header picture of Brunnera 'Jack Frost' flowers and got a positive comment from Nancy from Sun Lakes AZ:

#2

#3 is mainly dark blue with some semi-neutrals. Its accompanying picture is a Pachypodium geayi trunk. Nobody had commented on it yet when I took down the original hiatus announcement.

#3

#4 is mainly dark reddish-brown with some coral and blue highlights. It goes with a transmitted light picture of Stromanthe sanguinea 'Triostar.' I expect everyone will find it kind of hideous, but I like it (the coral is very close to the color I'm thinking about painting my office).

#4

#5 is mainly dark purple with some cream and green highlights and goes with an overly-large Viola picture. I'm not happy about the picture being so big, but otherwise it seems fairly inoffensive.

#5

Pretty picture: Gazania 'Kiss Rose'

I like to hold Gazania pictures in reserve for celebratory moments, but I kind of forgot to post one when the husband and I got married, or maybe I didn't have any new ones sitting around. I don't remember. In any case, I've been waiting for a reasonable occasion to post, and then I thought, well this is stupid, I can post a Gazania picture any time I want to, I don't have to wait for something to happen. So here it is. This is a variety called 'Kiss Rose' that I saw at a local home improvement store which shall remain nameless until they apologize to Amanda Thomsen.


It turns out to be really difficult to find Gazania cultivars that are any colors besides yellow and orange. Though I did find one such previously; it's just that all the pink/purple is in the form of stripes. 'Kiss Rose' is the first Gazania I've seen with solidly pink-purple petals.

For those of you who are worried: I do have a yellow Gazania picture in reserve, just in case something worthy of celebrating should happen.

Milestone: 100,000th hit

Moments ago, at approximately 10:05 PM (CDT) on September 24, 2008, PATSP got its 100,000th page hit. It was from someone with a Portland, OR IP address, who as best as I can tell was doing a Google image search for "coffea arabica neighborhood (public domain)."

This seems like a big enough deal to dust off the Celebratory Gazanias again:



Plus, what the hell, let's have a Gerbera of Accomplishment, too.

Pretty picture: Gazania 'Tiger Mix'

This is already post #200, since I started the blog, for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing. So let's celebrate with some Gazanias. This seems like a Gazania kind of moment.


Total word count for the blog: approximately 145,000.


55.5 plant profiles (the 1/2 being for the temporarily-incomplete Dieffenbachia profile).


Average daily output: about 750 words per day.


Total number of photos: Blogger tells me only about 600. Which I guess is still averaging 3 pictures per post, so it could be right. It seemed like more, somehow.


I know this isn't maybe a huge deal for you, and 200 is a weird number to get excited about, but I'm kind of making up for lost milestones: I didn't notice 100 until it was well past.