Urban Jungle Bloggers: Plants & Glass

This will be my first ever post for Urban Jungle Bloggers. Aloha!

The theme this month is ‘glass and plants’ so I thought I’d share a few photos of a little crocus bulb I planted in a glass vase back in December.

I love the long noodle-esque roots that swirl around in the water.

The little tiny bulb has enough nutrients to put down these long straggly jellyfish roots, and to sprout a delicate flower without needing soil which I find amazing.

It’s not all good news though. This fella started well, sprouting a little shoot and a tiny root. But then nothing! The promising sprout stopped growing abruptly and started to go all brown. Lots of care and attention failed to resurrect his progress. I think perhaps there was too much water in the vase and the bulb rotted. Sorry flower!

And finally, as this month’s theme is glass and plants I thought I’d share some photos of one of the amazing glasshouses in Kew Gardens. I live nearby so when I saw this month’s theme I popped over to take some photos.

The Princess of Wales conservatory was opened in 1987 and is home to cacti, ferns, orchids, waterlilies and even water dragons! When you’re inside it’s like being in a giant terrarium. Wandering around, I feel like a little Minimian character.

 

This strange looking jade vine hangs down and has these strange almost-glow in the dark coloured flowers. In the wild, they are polluted by bats, but the ones in Kew are hand-pollinated by Kew Gardens staff who go round armed with little paintbrushes.

The plant only flowers every 2 – 3 years so it was great to see it! The destruction of rainforests in the Phillipines, the jade vine’s natural habitat means the vines are under threat.

Urban Jungle Bloggers is a monthly series run by two bloggers, Igor (Happy Interior Blog) and Judith (JOELIX.com). To view more from the glass and plants theme, visit the Urban Jungle Bloggers website.