The Pre-Show Schedule

Well, I missed St. Pat's day wth my cousins because I've been working all day in the plant room. 

It's 12 weeks out from the national African violet convention, and I hope to have some plants to take to show.  That means a 12-week pre-show schedule to get them to bloom on time.  The pre-show schedule waits for no one, so I really had to get stuff done today.  The stand in my guest room is the show stand.  I have the most control over light there, and the ceiling fan works well.  This means that pretty much everything that was on this stand had to get moved to another stand for the duration.

Here is the top shelf - all semi's and mini's that were repotted today.  I don't usually grow a lot of these smaller plants.  I'm a standard grower.  I like them the best and they usually grow well for me.  I have killed my share of mini's.  The majority of these plants are semi's.  Three rows of them (see the yellow paper?  I marked them so I'd know which are which.  There is one row of mini's and then in the back a couple of rows of semi's that are not registered varieties but that have show potential.

The other three shelves will have standards on them.  Probably 4 to 5 on each shelf.  These are in 4" pots and they are looking a little small . . . the rule of thumb is that the pot should be 1/3 of the diameter of the crown.  The one in the back on the right is close.  The other three have some growing to do.  They are young standards, but they have show potential  :-)

It looks empty - but it won't in a couple of months.  Violets need air space.  You'll notice on the top shelf that those semi's and mini's are not close to touching either.

I look first for my plants that are registered varieties.  A plant doesn't need to be registered to be shown, but for me to enter it into a collection class, it must be registered, so I always start there.

I'm going to have to stop for the night, though, and finish the standards tomorrow.  I've been going since around 11 this morning and it's nearly midnight, but of course I had to take breaks  :-)  I did watch five episodes of Star Trek: TNG, though, and I've been up and down the basement stairs a million times. 

And funnily enough, the goofy chorus of Sir Greenbaum's Madrigal, one of the late Allan Sherman's parody songs, has been running through my head for the last hour:

All day with the mighty sword and the mighty steed and the mighty lance.
All day with that heavy shield and a pair of aluminum pants.

Except it sounds like this in my head:

All day with the potting mix and the potting tools and the baby plants.
All day with the basement stairs and a pair of aluminum pants.

Aluminum pants have nothing to do with African violets.  Aluminum pants are just funny.  I don't have any aluminum pants.  I don't particularly want any aluminum pants.  Just thinking about aluminum pants makes me laugh out loud, though.  I mean, really - think about it.  Aluminum pants.  Aren't you laughing now? 

I have no idea why I found his Jewish humor so hilarious, but I always did (and I was a little kid when he was famous and certainly had no idea what he was talking about). 

And now - it's time to go down the basement stairs one more time and clean up for the night.  I'll start back in in the morning.