Strange things that plantspeople do with their plants....

[Hans J]

This thread arose from a Hippeastrum thread : http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3557.15
and is for tales of what extremes you go for to see your plants flower and other obseesive plantsperson behaviour..... think of this thread as online therapy!!  

The subject arose when Hans J. wrote:
I have taken with me this two Hippeastrum and the Cryptostephanus to see them flowering in Black Forrest....I had fear to come home and the flowers are over .  
and continued.....

Hans, that is dedication indeed.... both to see your plants flower and to return  from your vaction in time for Le Tour de France!
Fabian Cancellara has made a strong beginning, has he not? I will be most interested to see how the peleton manages to climb Mont Ventoux on the day before Paris!! What a struggle that will be!

Hans replied :
Yes Maggi - now we have a hard time - every day watch the Tour  
Like you I'm very enjoyed that the day before the final etap is on Mt .Ventoux .....
I can not go in this year personly to the Tour ....they are near of me ( Vosges Mts. ) ...but it is the wrong day  

[Hans J]

Renate -thanks  for your pics !

mhhhh : if I remeber me correctly on your last visit -there was not only two nice dogs in your car ......

[Paul T]

Bye the way: Usually people make journeys with their dogs or cats....but with plants? I though I am a freak!

Renate,

I make trips with plants all the time..... although usually it is taking some with me for friends at the other end, and bringing back WAY more with me when I return.  You should have seen how many plants I brought back when I went to visit Otto, Tim, Fermi and the assorted nurseries and shows down there in Victoria last September.  I couldn't have fitted many more in on the way home, that is for sure.  Yes, I realise that wasn't what you were meaning, but I still had to chime in.  I must admit I have never taken a plant with me on a round trip unless I was taking it to show someone at the other end, not just to see it open.  In my climate with my sun I would be afraid to cook the poor plant in the car over the holiday, even in winter.  

[Hans J]

Paul :

maybe we could make a new topic :

which people take plants with it when thy make travels ? ( Maggi what you think ? )

I confess I have several times taken plants with me - in earlier time when I go to work ( my cacti are often flowering only for few hours ...and so I had only this chance to pollinate it ....)
In this case i was for one week away ....and here was very hot every day ...so if I have not take with we this flowers are wiltet ...

I would be really interestet to hear if I'm the only 

[Tony Willis]

Hans that is a lovely H.aulicum,

I think I have told you in our emails I have often taken plants on holiday with me when holidaying in the UK. I thought that was what the parcel shelf at the back of the car was for!

When I was working and could not get home at lunch time or before dark I used to take various things to work to watch them flower.It brightened the day.

[Maggi Young]

I believe this business of taking plants on vactaion or to work happens a lot.... especially with the smaller alpine plants, or bulb that are so portable.... hard to manage with an hebaceous border!
Alan Newton takes plants to his shop to enjoy them flowering and his customers get to see unusual alpines as they buy their meat! We used to take "specials" on holiday with us in case we missed a flower and I know that John and Rosemary (two more  friends who lurk but don't post) take plants, often orcgids in their case, I think) on holiday in their caravan.  Quite understandable that, having nutured aplant along and watched the buds growing that one does not wish to miss the beauty of it.
then there are my cactus growing chums , who will sit up all night to catch a fleeting blossom...... there's a lot of slightly obsessive behaviour out there in the plant-loving world!  Wonderful, isn't it?? 

[Paul T]

My manifestation for that obsession is going out with a torch to check on something that I have thought of.... you know, you suddenly realise that "such and such should be flowering about now", so I go out with a torch to find out, often when I am on the phone discussing it with gardening friends.  Just can't wait until daylight the next day.  

[Hans J]

Hans that is a lovely H.aulicum,

I think I have told you in our emails I have often taken plants on holiday with me when holidaying in the UK. I thought that was what the parcel shelf at the back of the car was for!

When I was working and could not get home at lunch time or before dark I used to take various things to work to watch them flower.It brightened the day.

Tony :

thank you for your 'confession'
I think that real plantswomen and plantsman make it like we both !
 

[Maggi Young]

 this thread moved to the "General " section

[Hans J]

My manifestation for that obsession is going out with a torch to check on something that I have thought of.... you know, you suddenly realise that "such and such should be flowering about now", so I go out with a torch to find out, often when I am on the phone discussing it with gardening friends.  Just can't wait until daylight the next day. 

Yes -I know this symptom too !
....I have heard some gardencenters selling spades with a torch 

[Paul T]

Hans,

If I saw someone out in there garden with a torch and a spade..... I'd be finding out whether it was their own garden or whether they were helping themselves to someone elses! 

[fermi de Sousa]

Hans,

If I saw someone out in there garden with a torch and a spade..... I'd be finding out whether it was their own garden or whether they were helping themselves to someone elses! 

Or whether their wife or husband had mysteriously vanished!

I've posted pics of plants I've brought to work to see them open!
cheers
fermi

[Renate Brinkers]

In winter, at night you can often see a shadow, creeping with a torch through my garden. One minute later you will hear a strange noise and again a shadow, creeping with a torch through my garden - always when I got the alarm in my bedroom which tells me: The gas is empty!

[Renate Brinkers]

Some day I had an interesting flower which I wanted to show people at work - I will never do this again.
O.k., it smelled not really good but the way to work was only five minutes with the car - again, I will never do this again.
Do you know Sauromatum venosum? Looks really interesting and when it flowers it smells like a dead horse in your car - it doesn´t helps really to open the windows.

O.k. you can say: Beauty is in the eye of the viewer - this maybe right when you are a carrion fly!

[Hans J]

Renate ,

if you come in winter to my garden you will see sometimes by night a person who goes in the greenhouse with a torch ....to kill the "Raupen" which my Cyclamen leaves are eating !!!