Art and Botany - Time Out from Printing

what the  flower should look like ...if. . .!!

Time out to  talk about what's happening in the studio behind the scenes.

 For weeks, . . . months now. . . something very exciting  is happening at the studio.  It has nothing to do with painting, printing or the like . . . even though it is a work of art that I'm talking about . . . it's art by  good old Mother Nature.

About 5 years ago, maybe 6, I bought a  little plant at the supermarket. The plastic pot, only 3 inches in diameter, housed a tiny "Strelizia" or  "Bird of Paradise", very exotic and one of my favorites.  There wasn't any real hope on my part that I would ever see it grow let alone flower but I bought it anyway. Everybody knows what that's like.

I'm afraid I wasn't very careful about the way I treated it at the beginning.  I slapped into an "any-old" kind of  vase not even considering that it would need good soil. It stayed in my garden for a couple of years where the temperatures during the winter are much more rigid than in Florence. When finally it started to show signs of growth, I decided to move it into the "tropical" temps of the city (the studio) where I put it in a larger pot and this time gave it fertle soil.

Low and behold,  after all these years, ( they say it takes at least 5), I think it's ready to BLOOM! Can hardly believe it!

I've been monitoring it for the past weeks, ever since it shot up a tall spike that could be a leaf  but is taking too long to open up. My hopes soar at the thought that it really is a flower. Every morning,  after I arrive at the studio,  my first stop is the courtyard to check the plant and/or flower.

Only then, after careful scrutiny and great discussion, (with husband, son and husband's secretary,  participants in this waiting) I go into the studio to work.

It's difficult to know how long the birth of this flower will take but. .  we should be close . . . (anyway, what do they say? Patience? it's a Virtue) After 5 years I can wait  a few more days?!?!?!

my plant. . . note "spike" at center