Back to the usual

Dark, wet and windy in Oban today. We should have stayed in York where it was only occasionally dark, wet and windy, but with blue sky in between!

Went to the shops this morning, but there's little point in going out again in search of a Blip on a day like this. It would have been good to have ended the year on a high note, but anyway I've photographed my lovely plant of Pamianthe peruviana. It grows as an epiphyte on tree branches in moist forests in Peru. It didn't flower last year, but has a twin flowering stem this year - I thought it might have flowered while we were away, but it's got a bit to go yet. 

I'm very glad that I 'nicked' it from Arduaine when I left, as all the glasshouse plants were put outside into the yard this time last year and it wouldn't have survived. Having said that, I feel that in spirit it's mine anyway as I grew it from seed from a plant that was grown from the seed that I supplied to Chiltern Seeds from my original plant many years ago, if that makes sense! I won't be able to house it much longer as it makes a huge plant - the original that I first grew from seed when I worked at Ross Priory grew over many years to be six feet across with sixteen flowering stems! Unfortunately my successor there put that outside in the winter too and of course it died - it's quite tender. What's wrong with people?

I'm hoping to persuade a friend to look after it in her conservatory, but in time it may just grow too big. This plant has already grown one offset. I'll Blip it again when it's in flower.