Incompatability Between Plants and Kittens

The last of the plants on the wall was adopted. I put up this picture of the young plants instead of the empty wall because it is more cheerful. I am thinking about putting the plants out in a less elaborate way since they do not stay for very long. I don't mind that they go quickly, but at dawn the light is not bright enough to take good pictures. My plan is to make pots out of plastic bottles and place the plants in pretty light, photograph them and leave them. Gift - the end.

I wanted to plant some cuttings I had started when I came across a problem.

The kittens really like philodendrons. They had eaten most of the cuttings so I was only able make two plants. 

I moved them to the window in the young son's room,

where they were soon discovered by Voltaire, the gardener kitten.

I have enough plants to form a barrier and the kittens have lost interest. I made some more pothos cuttings from the mother plant.

The Mother Plant

Hopefully I will be able to do one more plant run before winter and try out my new idea.

I want to do more work on the hanging sculpture.  The light has been so abysmal, it is hard to work on it in the gloom. Waiting for the beautiful October light.

Plant In Its New Home

Yay! I have a picture of one of the adopted plants. Thank you Bryan for giving this plant a home. There are a couple of lovely pictures over at Picasa which is another good place to post pictures of the plants. Apparently there are still two plants left. I hope they survive the storm.

Plant Wall

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Early this morning I put the plants out. These are the plants that I grew from cuttings, that suffered through the heat of summer, and finally grew stronger and more adapted to life on the street.

I was strangely nervous this morning. Maybe it was that story I read in the Gothamist recently about a young artist who got arrested for painting on paper she taped to a wall.

I needn't have worried, all was quiet as usual. I wish I had been a little neater in the installation.  Maybe I should have repositioned some of the plants. It hardly mattered for when I returned to photograph the plants in brighter light, only three were left.

I attached notes to the plants asking the people who took them let me know how the plants are doing. One person, Albert, has already responded. Thank you Albert for giving a plant a home.

If you adopted a plant, you can tell me about it by email: adiderot@gmail.com. You can also upload photos to your Flickr account with the tag diderotsblog. Sign up for a free Flickr account here.

I will post more detailed plant care later on.  In the meantime, you can just put the plant and its planter in a bowl by the window and give it a little water when it is dry.

Remains of the Storm

There is much better documentation of last Thursday's storm elsewhere; more dramatic photos,  tornado footage evoking Cloverfield. I was in Manhattan during the storm, where it was not as severe. I did not plan on posting anything about it until I walked down the street on Friday evening and I almost started to cry. It is one thing to see a picture of a tree felled by a storm in Queens or even Park Slope.  It is another thing to see a familiar tree face the same fate.

These are trees that I pass three or four times a week.

Some have broken limbs. They still look healthy except for their broken branches.

This is one of the blossoming pear trees that has delicate white flowers in the spring. They bloom all over the city.

This is a honey locust like the ones I wrote about in August.

Its broken limbs were piled in the street.

I photographed this tree a few weeks ago because I thought it was a redwood like the ones I saw on the tree hunt. Later I decided it must be a Bald Cyprus. Regardless, it did poorly in the storm.

I worry about the damaged trees.  It is stressful enough for trees in New York. I hope they will survive.

I feel so sad for the trees that were lost.