Rumble Among the Jungle Results

The final scores for match 6.1 are in:

Amazingly, Schlumbergera cvv. beat Saintpaulia cvv. by six votes (65-59) and goes to the final round. I'd thought Saintpaulia had a pretty good shot at winning the tournament (People love their African violets.), though I suppose making it to the second-to-last round is still not too shabby.

In a couple days, we'll have an official winner of match 6.2 (presently: too close to call). The final match will begin on 11 November.

They Grow Up So Fast: Nautilocalyx forgetii

I got a lot of new plants this summer and fall, mostly through trades, and I have to say, I think Nautilocalyx forgetii was the best. It's a competitive field -- good arguments could also be made for Chirita 'Deco,' Pereskia aculeata 'Godseffiana,' Episcia 'Pink Acajou,' Billbergia 'Foster's Striate,' and Huernia zebrina -- but in the end, I lean toward Nautilocalyx because it's grown rapidly while still remaining a very handsome-looking plant. I mean, there may be all sorts of terrible things about to happen this winter, but for right now, I'm quite smitten.

May 2011. 3" (7.5 cm) pot.

Jul 2011. 3" (7.5 cm) pot.

October 2011. 4" (10 cm) pot.
When I watered it yesterday, I saw what look like branches, sticking out of the leaf axils. Don't know what this is going to do to the overall shape of the plant, but if it does branch, then I can start trying to propagate, which ought to be fun.

I can't figure out why N. forgetii aren't sold more often. I mean, they're shiny, which people like, and there's contrasting color. I can't imagine they're particularly tough to ship; I've certainly seen more fragile plants in stores. They seem to propagate easily, and they grow fast enough that it seems like they'd be cost-effective to mass-produce. I haven't had bug problems yet. I treat it pretty much like I treat everything else, and it's thrived, so it doesn't seem like fussiness is the problem. So I'm stumped. Hopefully I'll be able to say the same in six months.

[Exceptionally] Pretty pictures: transmitted light -- Part XLV

I woke up on Monday depressed, and remained that way. This is something that's happened before, though usually it spontaneously dissipates after about six hours without me having to do anything. Occasionally I have to watch Beavis and Butthead Do America to shake it.

Yesterday, it didn't dissipate after six hours. More like twelve (it started to lift around 8-8:30 PM last night). But I've scraped the bottom of the posts barrel¹ to bring you a post anyway, because I love you.

Though it's only a transmitted light post. I don't want to marry you or anything.

(The previous transmitted light posts can be found here.)

Spathoglottis NOID.

Zea mays.

Chlorophytum 'Charlotte.'

Aglaonema 'Maria.'

Cordyline fruticosa NOID.

Philodendron pinnatifidum 'Spicy Dog,' dying leaf. Unexpectedly, this is probably my favorite from this set.

Colocasia esculenta. Though this would be a close second place. Colocasia pictures are almost cheating, though, really.

Stromanthe sanguinea 'Triostar.' Turned out badly, which seems like it ought to be impossible with this plant. Not sure what to blame.

Caladium 'Cardinal.' Caladium pictures are cheats too. Also Codiaeum. Any of the "C" plants, really.

Episcia NOID.
-

¹ Metaphor, obviously, but I picture it as being your standard staves-and-hoops barrel. Wooden (oak?), about 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter, and filled with white pieces of paper about the size of a receipt, which are the posts.

Rumble Among the Jungle, Match 6.2

Results for match 5.4:

Haworthia spp. were victorious over Calathea cvv., by a vote of 60 to 44, so now succulent is pitted against succulent for the chance to reach the final match:

Match 6.2
Echeveria cvv. and related plants (Sedeveria, Graptoveria, Pachyveria, etc.) vs. Haworthia spp.

Top row, L-R: Echeveria 'Perle von Nurnberg,' E. 'Topsy Turvy,' E. setosa.
Middle row, L-R: Graptosedum 'Alpenglow - Vera Higgins,' Echeveria coccinea flowers, Echeveria 'The Rose.'
Bottom row, L-R: Echeveria nodulosa, Pachyveria x glauca, Echeveria x shaviana 'Pinky.'

Top row, L-R: Haworthia tessellata (?), H. NOID.
Middle row, L-R: Haworthia limifolia var. ubomboensis, H. cymbiformis (?), assortment.
Bottom row, L-R: Haworthia attenuata, H. limifolia var. limifolia.

Rumble Among the Jungle Results

Results for match 5.3:

Sort of an odd situation, throwing the Oncidium alliance orchids up against Echeveria et al. I mean, people are always saying not to compare apples to oranges, but at least apples and oranges are both fruit, and about the same size. Comparing Oncidiums to Echeverias seems like a step beyond even apples-oranges, but here we are regardless. In any case, Echeveria et al. got the win, 68-61, and goes on to face the winner of match 5.4 tomorrow.

Match 6.2 will probably be a few minutes late getting posted, because voting for 5.4 has to end before I can include its score in the post for 6.2. Just to warn you.

Pretty picture: Phaius Microburst Octoberfest

I don't like the photo, but it's all I have. I've taken better Phaius pictures before.

I spent a lot of yesterday trying to deal with technical problems. (I couldn't access large sections of the internet -- some of the photos on Tumblr, the Polldaddy site I create the Rumble polls with, most/all Wordpress sites, etc.) In the end, I didn't actually fix anything: I never even figured out what had happened. Just, after about six hours of half the internet being gone, suddenly it was back again.

I'd probably have something funny and/or clever to say if I hadn't burned all my mental energy trying to figure out where the internet went. Sorry.

Rumble Among the Jungle, Match 6.1

Results for match 5.2:

Phalaenopsis cvv. did give Schlumbergera cvv. a fight, but they couldn't quite get the votes needed to defeat them. (One wonders whether the results would have been different were we not in the middle of Schlumbergera-blooming season.) The final vote was 74 to 62.

Schlumbergera has to turn around and do battle again right away, this time against Saintpaulia cvv. If Schlumbergera loses, I guess they can use the excuse that it was tired from battling Phalaenopsis, and would have won if it'd just had a chance to rest.

Have at it. Choose carefully.

Match 6.1
Saintpaulia cvv. (African violet) vs. Schlumbergera cvv. (holiday/Thanksgiving/Christmas cactus)

Saintpaulia cvv.
Top row, L-R: NOID, assorted NOIDs, NOID.
Middle row, L-R: NOID, NOID, NOID.
Bottom row, L-R: 'Harmony's Red Star,' 'Mellow Magic' close-up, NOID.

Center and top left: Schlumbergera 'Caribbean Dancer;' others are NOID.

Saturday morning Sheba and/or Nina picture

It's not something I worry about worry about, but I do wonder whether Sheba has enough to do during the day. I mean, not that she acts bored, or gets into the trash or tears up the furniture or whatever it is that dogs are supposed to do when they're bored. I just wonder if she's gotten, y'know, dumb, 'cause we never ask her to roll objects around with her nose until food falls out, jump over/through/around a series of small obstacles, or solve crimes with the neighborhood children. It's possible that I'm projecting: assuming she must be bored because I would be bored if I had her life. Maybe I'm projecting even more than that, and I'm just bored with my life and this has nothing to do with Sheba at all. I don't know.

In any case, we tried, this week, to give her something a little more challenging than usual. I cut a hole in a milk jug, and put tennis balls inside. Why tennis balls? They're one of the few things she pays attention to. If one rolls under an object and she can't reach it, she'll flop down on the floor and stare at it pointedly until someone retrieves it for her. If it's particularly urgent, she'll even whine a little, though that's rare.

Okay, so there are tennis balls in this thing. Huh.
And it sort of worked, in that she was interested in the milk jug, but she's not much of a creative thinker, I guess. Her first strategy was to stick her nose directly into the hole and attempt to get the balls out that way, which failed,

If I could just get a little bit closer . . .
and then the backup plan was to stare at the husband and me in the expectation that we'd deal with the problem for her.

No. Seriously. What the fuck is this? Give me my balls back.
When we didn't take the balls out for her, she lost interest; when we put a rawhide in the milk jug, she regained interest; when she couldn't get the rawhide out either, she lost interest again. Possibly this was too complicated for a first attempt at mental enrichment crap, especially since the relevant actions (rolling the jug over, picking it up and shaking it around) aren't things she typically does with anything else.

That's pretty much the whole story, but while you're here -- I'm interested in maybe trying to do some clicker training with her, but we looked at clickers the other day at the pet store and they were sort of ridiculously priced. (Considering that its only function is to make a noise -- and not even a pleasant noise -- $6 seems unreasonable.) I know there has to be something we have around the house that could be used instead, but I'm having trouble thinking of it. (Sheba's not the only one here with the occasional failure of imagination.) Any suggestions?