They pruned a palm next door. What were they thinking? Plonkers.

The moonflowers (Ipomoea alba) are almost as pleasing as the Plumeria (which is still putting on a show). Not quite, because the plant itself is a bit raggedy; the leaves look like they’ve got a severe case of mosaic virus or some such, and the stem bottoms are bare and not very attractive. But hey, they’re in a small trough and have been somewhat erratically watered, and they’re catching the brunt of the wind. So all in all, I’m pretty pleased.

Why the fuss? I’ve read about moonflowers in all sorts of places, and always found them fascinating. They open around sunset, often very suddenly. If your timing is right, apparently, you can see them unfurl as you watch. They’re pollinated by large moths. And the next morning, they’re over. What’s not to like?

The fact that they need warmth, which I’ve not had before, and which I’ve now got in spades. So I persuaded a visitor to bring me a couple of packs of seed (I didn’t realise then that they seem to be freely available on eBay). They grew like the clappers, quickly scrambling to the top of the trellis, and beyond. But no sign of flowers. I figured maybe they needed shortening days, and just as I was leaving at the end of July I thought there might have been some very baby flower buds in the leaf axils. There were, and two weeks later when I returned dead flowers on the paving and buds ready to open.

Photographing them is hard. They open as the light is fading, at one of the windiest times of day. Flash makes them look hard. But without flash it’s not easy to get a sharp image. I tried holding a flower still with a plamp, but the corolla tube is so delicate that the jaws perforated it. Still, I had to try …

Moonflower 4.jpg

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Frozen in the flash Mk I

Can I imitate a moth sufficiently well that the flowers will set seeds? Maybe so. I’ve tried three nights in a row, and I’ve a feeling that the limp petals remain longer on a fertilized flower, but I can’t be sure. It would be nice not to have to beg them from friends or seek them out on eBay. Who knows, could be a nice little earner.

I’m looking forward to having a little more leisure the week after next, so that we can sit on the terrace, G&T in hand, home-grown lemon in G&T, and stare at the buds until we force one to expand in front of our eyes.

It was going to be just an ordinary Sunday morning walk, but we were planning on about double the normal distance because our appointment for coffee was an hour away. The air was wonderfully fresh, a fine contrast to the night before’s heat which had mired me in lethargy. The streets were just about empty too; not that it was terribly early, but the Romans are mostly out of the city. So it was one of those walks when you look up and suddenly realize not only where you are but also that you have really no recollection of having got there. The Tempietto looked so beautiful behind its locked gates, but of course I hadn’t expected this and so was camera-less. Not quite. And I actually quite like the way the phone has blown out all the detail in the highlights. Framing is hard, as is seeing what you’ve done, so I’m disproportionately pleased with the outcome.

And then, of course, there were photos waiting to be taken wherever I looked.

[View with PicLens]

It might be fun to really work with phone images some time. For now, I’m just glad to have at least some sort of record.

The freshness didn’t last, of course. It rained today for five minutes, onto hot tarmac, and now I’m living inside a hot towel.

]]> http://jeremycherfas.net/wp/Archive/2008/07/21/ill-equipped-for-walkies/feed/ 2 http://jeremycherfas.net/wp/Archive/2008/06/13/scenes-from-roman-life-14-nun-surfing/ http://jeremycherfas.net/wp/Archive/2008/06/13/scenes-from-roman-life-14-nun-surfing/#comments Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:44:57 +0000 Jeremy http://jeremycherfas.net/wp/Archive/2008/06/13/scenes-from-roman-life-14-nun-surfing/

I am developing an unhealthy obsession with nuns. After all, in the end they’re probably more or less normal people, with the same hopes, fears, ambitions etc as the rest of us. But I still find it noteworthy when I see them doing more or less normal things. Like using laptop computers. And wearing groovy Birkenstocks.

After three days of almost incessant rain, I got up one morning to find that one of my cacti had gone berserk.

And just as suddenly, a couple of days later, all those flowers were limp and dessicated. that set me to wondering about the synchrony of flowering in cacti. Many are pollinated by birds and bats, which presumably are not going to check every day to see whether there are any treats in store.

So, particularly if it is generally an outbreeder, it would pay a plant to flower in synchrony with other individuals, creating a decent-sized signal for the pollinators. there’s some evidence that this is true, for some species, but on a quick scan I haven’t found anything definite or general.

I take some care of my cacti. Next door, perched on top of a gate post where I guarantee it gets no care whatsoever, is a considerably larger, different cactus. A morning or two after mine it too went crazy.

What a perfect, brief treat.