Do Not Tickle

Day 309: The fortuituous timing of a post from Watson's Nursery and the date submissions were due for the Puyallup Fair couldn't have conveyed a clearer message: I needed to make another pass at keeping a Venus Fly-trap alive. My success in that regard has been rather limited in the past, with something like six months as the record, but even at that, it was fun while it lasted. I've had greater luck with other carnivorous species, but lost my last Sarracenia when an exceptionally hard frost dropped without warning a few years ago. I have not been able to replace the plant, but hope to do so at some point because it gave me many years of faithful anti-mosquito guard duty. Venus, of course, will live indoors. She's not as hardy as Sarracenia. One word of caution: she does not like being tickled. If her traps close on empty air, they are likely to digest themselves.

The Face Of Venus

Day 274: I have limited success growing Venus Fly-Traps and have never had one survive more than about 8 months in my care. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy them, so when my last one failed to sprout after its winter dormancy, I bought a new one. I've had it for about two months now, and the little darling has decided to put on a show of flowers! Individual florets seem to succeed one another, i.e., one blooms as another bud is swelling, with the first flower near the end of its cycle just as the second bursts. Given that, I expect that not all buds will mature, and that successive flowers will be smaller than the earlier ones. Don't be fooled by the background; Venus is a houseplant in our climate, and no doubt about it. I just took her outside for the photo.

Indoor Gardening

Day 3: Over the years, I've made numerous attempts at growing a Venus Fly-Trap and have yet to have one survive in my care longer than about six months. You'd think I'd give up...I gave up on orchids after a few stunning failures...but I do love my carnivores, so I keep experimenting with different types of water (spring water, rain water, distilled water, the heavily mineralized water out of my tap) and various means of humidity control (in a terrarium, in a saucer of water, on the shower window ledge), but have yet to hit on the right formula. The plants go dormant and sometimes the foliage will disappear altogether, so it's not always easy to tell if you're wasting time nurturing an empty pot, further complicating the issue of culture. In any event, this specimen should provide me with a couple of months of amusement at the very least.

Secondary Attractor

Day 328: The season is winding down, evidenced by the shortening of the days, and plants which enter a dormant period are acknowledging the change. New foliage is shorter, more spindly, the energy now being directed into flower and subsequent seed production. Old foliage is withering and dropping, turning into mulch which will afford roots some protection against colder temperatures. Plants raised indoors or in greenhouses are not immune to the diminishing hours of light. My Venus Fly Trap has dined well and is now preparing for a winter nap by putting up a stalk of flowers, a secondary attractor in the rules governing this species' game of survival.

Zombies Don't Stand A Chance

Day 225: I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I was when Rovio released their new "Angry Birds Friends" game and I discovered that it requires you to belong to the bubblegum crowd on Facebook. Oh, I have a Facebook account, but I don't "friend" people I don't know, and I don't keep an appointment list for what times I'll be on the computer to play a game against an opponent. However, I find myself rapidly running out of birds to fling and pigs to blow up, and therefore I needed something to amuse myself when I want to kick back in my favorite chair and put my feet up. A friend whose opinions I value suggested a game which from the name sounded rather unappealing to me: "Plants vs. Zombies." As I was creeping closer and closer to the completion of all Angry Birds episodes at the three-star level, I finally gave in.

Okay, it's not as much fun as Angry Birds. I'll tell you that straight up, but there's something entertaining about playing as a gardener who is trying to win out over the horde of zombies invading the yard. Oh, yes...you play as the gardener, not as a zombie. That was the first surprise, and given the popularity of guts and gore, it was even more astonishing to find that the zombies aren't particularly gruesome. They're kinda silly, actually, and the plants...well, the plants are just plain cute. There's a Chomper, a globose, fanged purple species which resembles a Venus Fly Trap and eats zombies who get too close. It takes a long time to masticate its meal, though, and is vulnerable while it's chewing. With my fondness for carnivorous plants, it endeared itself to me immediately.

The game is easier than Angry Birds, and I'm skipping through the levels quickly. The Kindle Fire version is missing some of the content available to PC users (notably the Zen Garden), but since I've never played it on the computer, I don't notice the lack. And if I can't win out against the deer in my real garden, at least in this virtual one, I can keep those pesky zombies at bay.