It's a snail. And if you allow it will creep across the table too slowly to watch.
Red morning glories, the usual dark red kind. They're supposed to be.
Seeds for red came with seeds for blue but from China, and although the seeds had "morning" in their name, or "dragon" in their name, or "glory" in their name, they were not morning glory seeds as advertised so I threw those seeds away.
I don't know if they're trying or not trying. I'm not accepting random seeds anymore. This is all experiment over here, but it's my experiment, not theirs, and not random. This happened before a few times. I end up growing the strangest most useless most take-over things.
But those are adult concerns and nothing takes me straight back faster to First Grade in Pennsylvania than watching a seed. Just look at that thing. It is a DNA strands wadded up tightly and packed with nutrition enough to see it up out of the dirt and spread itself into the light and go from there via photosyntheses. Packed up and dried. However it happens the seed and favorable conditions meet, moisture and warmth, then the packet unravels and rips DNA to force its way, aggressively grow its way into a new reality. It never ceases to amaze me. I like watching. I feel like a kid.
3 comments:
I plant walnuts and acorns and it is a wondrous thing seeing them sprout when Spring arrives. New life - is there anything better?
I planted some Angelica seeds late last summer hoping to have about six young sprouts ready for early fall planting. Nothing came up, so I followed various internet hints like freezing the seeds or shutting them up in the dark for 24 hours and still nothing.
On the day I was ready to give up and toss them, lo and behold a few sprouted, then eventually they all came out, but being late October it was too late for outdoor planting. I eventually ended up with 24 plants and got them planted outside a few weeks ago.
If all goes well in two years I'll have an overabundant crop. Anyone up for fruitcake or homemade Chartreuse?
The curiosity that arose from the Angelica seed story involves the plant's alternative name as the Holy Ghost (according to wiki) which led to this:
Another explanation of the name of this plant is that it blooms on the day of Michael the Archangel (May 8, old style), and is on that account a preservative against evil spirits and witchcraft: all parts of the plant were believed efficacious against spells and enchantment. It was held in such esteem that it was called 'The Root of the Holy Ghost.
Which makes this another interesting day in the garden of Good and Evil.
Yes to the power of seeds. At this time of year, I'm also impressed with the power of black dirt to hold and sustain whatever is poked into its contained presence.
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