New plant!
Bwahahahaha, it has fangs!
I get to work in a greenhouse once or twice a week, and there is a retired gentleman named Professor Robby who also used to work in the greenhouse but likes to still come to care for his amazing collection of plants. Every time I check on my plants which are near his, I marvel at two in his collection... one is a vine with little crisp leaves and yellow flowers with brown centers, and the other is a small bush with miniature pumpkins yet the flowers don't look like gourd flowers (like trumpets). The pumpkin one is my favorite... I have seen it in bouquets before and I think also at my grandpa's house (he is my gardening idol), and have unsuccessfully tried to grow it from seed from that bouquet.
Walking through the greenhouse today, I saw the half-wilted mini pumpkin plant laying on a table without a pot, and Prof. Robby offered it to me out of the blue! How did he know that it was the one plant of his that I coveted the most? I accepted in a split second and thanked him profusely... in his humbleness, he said that his mom always had a superstition that if you thank someone for a plant it'll die. I thanked him anyway, and he said he didn't believe in superstition. Haha!
Mini "pumpkins" from my new plant
(with jasmine nightshade, Solanum jasminoides flowers behind it)
I looked it up online, and quickly discovered that it is Solanum aethiopicum, otherwise known as Ornamental Eggplant or Pumpkin On A Stick. I like the latter term, personally. I knew it was a Solanum, since it has the same type of flowers as potatoes and tomatoes. It is technically edible yet very bitter, usually just used as decoration but not poisonous in a stir-fry. I won't be tasting it though, since it may have been exposed to pesticides in the greenhouse. Here it is, happy in its new pot and no longer wilted.
Leprechaun Frog is tipping his hat to the new addition to the garden.
Autumn is my favorite season, and this Pumpkin On A Stick is a little early bit o' that autumn magic.
No comments:
Post a Comment