The Insistence of Life

Look what I found growing from a crack in the pavement next to a garage in my apartment parking lot! A tomato plant with fruit!

 

I was walking by and tend to notice weeds, bugs, and pretty much anything but the other humans around me. When I spotted this, it just blew my mind.

 

 

Has anyone else ever seen anything like this before?

I never thought of a vegetable (okay, tomato is fruit) as a spontaneous, wild weed...but here it is. So insistent on growing and producing that it's nearly un-stoppable. If we could get more healthy food growing from sidewalk cracks everywhere, just think of the effect on our diets. (I did not try a tomato from this plant though, just in case some person or their dog peed on it at some point. Guess that's the caveat, eh?)

Autumn Orchids

Our keiki project phalaenopsis orchid is blooming beautifully, but I'm still not really seeing a "baby plant" where I started the keiki. No leaves or roots yet...

...but if the green stem-looking thingies all turn into bloom scapes like this one I'll be happy!

The green vanilla orchid has reached the top of the tree fern pole, so I'm trying to encourage it to grow the other way. Eventually I'm hoping it will be completely epiphytic and cover the whole thing.

 

The variegated vanilla is still pretty small, but still alive and growing some, so I'm happy!

 

The recently mounted tolumnia 'Tequila Sunrise' is very unhappy and appears to be rotting. Looks like I got carried away keeping it moist...bummer.

Brassavola nodosa, fragrant Lady of the Night orchid (upper right) and cymbidium 'Suzie Q' are both doing well, Suzie is especially vigorous but neither has bloomed yet. I tend to get excited about collecting orchids without keeping a close eye on cultural requirements, so I'd better read up if I want more than survival from them (although survival is certainly encouraging   :)

                                     Suzie is at least twice the size she was when I bought her!

Lady of the Night was a re-mount I did awhile back, and she hasn't really made use of the large cork mount yet, but I'll do my cultural homework and see if I can make her happier.

 

Maxillaria tenuifolia is doing okay...

...but I think mounting an orchid on driftwood isn't such a great idea. The wood just doesn't hold moisture well enough, I think cork is way better. I'll leave this one as is though, and do some reading to see what I can do to inspire a bloom.

I see why they say that phalaenopsis are "easy" orchids, it's the only one that a rank ameteur like myself can get to bloom more than once (so far). Never underestimate the perseverence of an ameteur however, their hope/stubbornness springs eternal!