Shady Cast of Characters

Now that you have seen the movie of Plant World: Summer Edition, let me introduce you to some of the shady cast of characters. (Do I say that because they are partly shaded on my balcony or because they create some shade of their own? That's for me to know and you to wonder!) This is by no means an exhaustive list of the plantages involved but introduces you to some of the major players.

The Professor - a dracaena demerensis (?) left to me by someone who had gotten her PhD and was moving out of town for a job as a professor

Greg, Lazarus, and The Professor

Dr. Cheung - a spineless yucca given to me by a coworker, who had himself inherited it from a previous coworker named Dr. Cheung

Moses and Dr. Cheung

Jolly Bob - a dracaena of some sort (possibly demerensis or reflexa) abandoned by the side of the road; I found it as Tiffy and I were returning from a Jamaican restaurant called "Jolly Bob's Jerk Joint"

Jolly Bob

Greg - a dracaena fragrens abandoned by my neighbor Greg when he moved to California

Lazarus - a nine-tenths dead dracaena fragrens Hardingfele found by the side of the road and brought to me. Miraculously, I was able to save it

Moses - a ficus benjamina I found in a basket by the garbage can in my condo complex. It had one leaf left at the time, but I felt sorry for it, took it home, and watered it... and now it is covered with leaves!

Baby Girl - an enormous pineapple plant that grew out of a much smaller "mother" plant but shows no inclination for producing a fruit like its mother did (see below)

Mama Pineapple with Tiny Fruit

This does not even mention my Plant World: Work Edition plants, which include a "frosty fern" (actually just a giant moss), a cycad, two pothos, baby spider plants (the mom is in Plant World), a big dracaena marginata left in my care by an insane neighbor who moved to Seattle, and the tiny dracaena one of my current coworkers gave to me, the one I scanned.

This coworker has two saltwater fish which he has never named, so we call them "Nemo Two" and "Blue," and I am currently fish-sitting them. He got them to replace "Nemo," an enormous clownfish that was ten years old. My officemate and I googled clownfish and found out their average life expectancy is six years, so this thing was obviously living on borrowed time. We were a little scared to fish-sit such an ancient creature that could clearly expire at any moment during our watch, but Nemo the First (also not named by the coworker) had the good grace to wait until its rightful owner returned to die on his watch. Hopefully Nemo Two and Blue don't die on my watch, but they are still very young fish.

Famous Hat