Pretty pictures: Gerbera cvv.

It's been a very long time since I've mentioned Gerberas here. And there's a good reason for that: I don't like them very much.

Some of this is because they were hard to keep in the greenhouse (too wet and they mildew, too dry and they wilt), but even the healthy ones seem a little bit too much, in a bad way. Aggressively cheerful motivational speaker types, almost. Like if gerbs could talk, they'd spend all day spewing something like, It's just GREAT to be here with all of you on this FANTASTIC and BEAUTIFUL day and isn't it WONDERFUL how we can all get together and have FUN like this and now I'm going to burst into song IF YOU'RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT CLAP YOUR HANDS. . . .

So why do a post about them? Because I've never seen gerbs like these before:

These were at the ex-job last Wednesday. Neither one had an ID tag.

I don't know if this kind of flower, with the two-tone petals, is a new thing in the world of Gerbera daisies -- it's not a part of horticulture I keep up with, for obvious reasons -- but it's at least not very common; most of the pictures that come up in Google image search are of red, orange, and pink single-color flowers. So it seemed newsworthy.

Pretty pictures: Orange

Mom was fond of the color orange when I was growing up: we had orange curtains in the kitchen, and orange Tupperware containers for flour and sugar, orange measuring spoons, just orange orange orange. (It was the 70s: people did that then.) I never really cared for it, personally, but I can see how orange flowers in the garden might be nice. A lot of them have been grabbing my attention lately.

Bracteantha bracteata 'Sundaze Flame.'
Younger Co-Worker told me a few days ago that she hated strawflowers. I don't recall her giving any reasons, when I asked why, she just kind of gestured at them, like it was just obvious. Possibly she said something about them being noisy. I told her that I'd heard that only stupid people hate Bracteanthas. Then the next day, Wonderful Co-Worker spontaneously expressed a dislike of Bracteanthas too. I don't know what it is. They seem like perfectly nice plants to me. Last year, they hung around forever, not really selling, and then all of a sudden I came in one day and they were all gone, all sold to the same person. I'm hoping history repeats.

Begonia NOID, possibly 'Britt Dark.' I usually take pictures of the ID tags after taking pictures of the plant: it's faster than writing things down. In this particular case, though, the pictures may have gotten out of order, and so I'm not sure what this plant's proper name is.
Rieger Begonias are one of those plants that have really, um . . . what's the opposite of "grown on me?" "Grown off me?" That doesn't sound right. In any case. I don't know why, exactly: they're tricky to water (too much and the leaves mildew, not enough and the edges of the petals turn brown and hideous), but that's not the entire story. I don't know. Whatever the reason, somewhere along the way I started referring to them in my head as "the vile Rieger begonias," and it's not entirely a joke.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Caribbean Breeze.'
Hibiscus, though, are fine. I was actually incredibly tempted to buy this one when it was around (it's since sold). The picture doesn't do it justice. I held off because of the price (not outrageous, but a little high for what it was) and because Hibiscus are so bug-prone that I'm not sure I want one. I mean, I want one, but not if it's going to get aphids, whitefly, and spider mites.

Calibrachoa 'Tequila Sunrise.' I recommend opening this one, in particular, in a new window.
I like Calibrachoa in general, but 'Tequila Sunrise' in particular. The colors!

Cosmos 'Cosmic Mix.'
Cosmos 'Cosmic Mix.'
'Cosmic Mix' is the only Cosmos we've offered for sale since I've had this job. I know there are other colors and mixes, because we have them for sale as seeds, but for some reason we don't bother with them. I don't know why not. I do love 'Cosmic Mix,' though. Yellow-orange, orange, red-orange. Pretty hot.

Zinnia 'Profusion Apricot.'
Zinnia 'Profusion Apricot' doesn't photograph well: the first batch I took came out looking kind of pink-purple, and the above photo, from the second round, is closer but still wrong somehow. It looks all . . . muddy in a way that the real flowers don't.

Gerbera jamesonii 'Festival Spider Orange.'
We haven't actually had this particular plant around for a couple months, but it's worth throwing in here anyway. Orange is orange. I'm not a big fan of Gerberas, for essentially the same reasons as the Reiger Begonias: they're not easy to keep going at this time of year, when so many other things need our attention too. They tend to either get too wet (in which case mildew) or too dry (in which case wilting). Though like the Riegers, they sell well.

Tagetes patula NOID, probably 'Safari Orange' or 'Durango Orange.'
I like the little marigolds. This year's crop turned out much better than last year's: they're very pretty. We maybe should have started more.

Thunbergia alata.
Got this one in pre-finished as a hanging basket. We started some of our own from seed, too, but they're not really doing anything yet, and I'm thinking by the time they're ready to bloom, it may be too late.

Pretty pictures: Gerbera jamesonii flowers

It's apparently Gerbera season: we've just started getting them in at work again. I don't have a lot to say about these: I think gerbs are pretty self-explanatory.

This also serves as the announcement of my spring hiatus: there will be no new posts from 20-23 March, and then we're back to business as usual with a post of some kind on the 24th.

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.