For Love Of Flowers

A little musing, some research and a poem.

Yes, I am one of those people who has pet flowers. Some are inside my home, while others are in the garden outside. Don’t get me wrong; I also love animals, and our family has had our share of cats, dogs, turtles, fish, and the like. Our life at the moment centers on a variety of pet plants.

We visited a friend’s home while they were traveling, and I was asked if I would care for her many houseplants. She naturally gave me watering instructions, which I followed closely. After we returned home, she messaged me, asking if there was something I did that she did not do since her plants all looked so good.

“No,” I replied, “I just did what you told me to, but then I always sweet-talk my plants while watering them.”

I wasn’t aware of this habit, but I also engaged in sweet talk while looking after some friends’ dogs and cats. Being a naturally chatty person, this seems to happen automatically.

So, with this revelation, it won’t be a big surprise to tell you I have always had a few floral pets. I was particularly fond of two plants I don’t have now, as I gifted them to a friend when we moved. While looking through photographs I’d taken, I remembered them fondly and thought it would be fun to publish these images in my newsletter.

Of course, since they came with neatly printed labels, I assumed I knew their correct botanical names. But to be sure, I did a little research, mainly to find their Latin names and perhaps some other information I was unaware of. To my surprise, they were never the plants I thought they were! Not that in the larger scheme of things that matters, I still enjoyed them very much.

If you have ever written for publication, you will understand that a piece can start as something entirely different from what it ends up being. This newsletter is where I let myself have a little fun and muse about this and that. What happened here was a poem came out first. Sometimes, the language of poetry can be more precise than prose.

Here is what I found with some botanical research.

While “Fifi” might be a cute nickname for a cactus, I could find no cactus with the name “Orchid Cactus Fifi.”

I was still certain that my “Queen of the Night” (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) was real. However, after finding that the real Queen only produces one blossom on any given night. I had twelve blooms at one time on mine. I sadly had to admit it was not a genuine Queen of the Night.

So, what was my plant, then? After an exciting research journey, I finally identified it as a ‘night-blooming Cereus’ species, possibly Cereus repandus. This species shares many characteristics with the “Queen of the Night,” adding to the intrigue of my pet cactus collection.

So that left my dear Fifi, who was really but a Peanut Cactus (Disocactus Ackermannii), which appeared as Fuchia but also comes in other colors.

May your day be full of pet animals or blossoms to which you can sweet-talk.

Trina

Sharing savvy insights and artful moments as a multi-genre Content Creator and Author-Illustrator.

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