Lapidaria margaretae blooms!

L. margaretae was sort of a Holy Grail mesemb for me. The beautiful celadon leaves tipped with pink, exceptional symmetry, and all around cuteness had me looking all over for one. I finally found a tiny, (just 1.5 cm in diameter) decrepit little creature at a nursery sale. For $5. It looked kind of dead, but it was the only one I'd ever seen, so I went ahead and bought it. After a year of nursing and Reiki, it has releafed and bloomed!

Lapidaria margaretae in bloom, MRobb, Nov 2015

Every gardener has a few plants they are particularly proud of. This is sure one of mine! I'll update as the bloom progresses.
Lapidaria are from Namibia and they are cousins to the Lithops. They do not like to live alone, and so this one is housed with some Gibbaeum and an Argyroderma that was rescued from the Death Cart (see the scar on top of the leaf). Laps don't like much water in winter, but more water is welcome in spring and summer. It likes bright, indirect sunlight, and warmth. It also likes to get cold occasionally, but not freeze. That's not going to happen where I live, but I've thought about putting it in the fridge overnight. Probably won't do it, though....

Reiki Zinnias at Two Months

It's been two months since I first sowed the "Envy" Zinnias and began Round 2 of the Reiki Plant Experiment. Here is the final picture before they go out into the garden, and the final indoor stats:

Non-Reiki pot on L (white label), Reiki pot on R, MR, Sep2014

The Reiki pot is on the right, and non-Reiki pot on the left (with the white label). Here are the growth stats:
# of plants in pot:  Reiki 7, non-Reiki 4
Height in cm of tallest plant: Reiki 15cm, non-Reiki 13cm
Width of largest plant, leaf-tip to leaf-tip: Reiki 10cm, non-Reiki 10cm

So the Reiki pot did come out ahead in terms of numbers, health of plants, and height. The width of the plants remained the same. The Reiki pot certainly looks more robust, and that is encouraging. I'll be ready for Round 3 in October.

Addendum: The Zinnia That Died

The Non-Reiki pot of zinnias had a fatality due to the red spider mites that have been gobbling up our greenery this summer. One plant became infested and died after just a couple of days. The other four plants in that pot are mite-free. In the Reiki pot, the smallest zinnia (#7) had a few mites and a slightly curled leaf, but is now mite-free. I am checking both pots daily for any other mites and will kill off any I find, but the trouble seems to have passed and the remaining plants in both pots seem quite robust.

This one died.

Reiki Plant Notes and Two Final Flower Portraits

Another week has gone by for the Reiki/non-Reiki zinnias, and there is a peculiar difference:

Reiki Zinnias, below: July 22, 2014, MR

Both sets of plants are growing well, and are about the same size. The Reiki zinnias sprouted a full 24 hours before the non-Reiki, but now they are growing apace. However, the non-Reiki zinnias are growing further apart, while the Reiki zinnias have grown closer together. In addition, they are given the same amount of sunlight, yet the non-Reiki zinnias have longer stems and show stronger positive phototropism, whereas the Reiki plants are growing straight, and their stems are shorter. Is this because the non-Reiki plants need more light than the Reiki plants? I don't know. What do you think? The experiment continues....

And now for something completely different-- my two final "flower portraits" (really, I know I said that before) from my spring garden, one for Mexican tuberose, the other for sunflower:

Mexican Tuberose Portrait, MR, 2014

Sunflower Portrait, MR, 2014

Reiki For Plants: Let's Grow Zinnias!

Zinnia elegans var. "Envy" is engaged in a Reiki For Plants experiment. It began on July 8, 2014:

Zinnia elegans "Envy", photo courtesy Indianapolis Museum of Art

Each pot has had 5 Zinnia seeds sown. One pot is receiving daily Reiki from two practioners (I'm one of them).  The other pot is kept in identical conditions except for the Reiki- it gets none. The zinnia seeds were sown on July 8, 2014. Today, July 13, 2014, the Reiki pot (in the photo below, it's on the left) has 3 sprouts, and primary leaves are visible on one of the three. The non-Reiki plant (in photo below, on right) has one seed just beginning to sprout, though it is not easy to see yet.

Reiki Zinnias left, non-Reiki Zinnias, right, July 13, 2014

I'll keep you all updated!

A Postscript on Reiki For Plants

"Reiki For Plants" is one of my all-time most popular posts. Are there any Reiki practitioners out there who would like to try Round 2 and grow some plants from seed with and without Reiki? I am planning to start a number of seedlings, with and without Reiki, following a simple protocol. I'd love to have others participate to see what we can find out. My first trial was intriguing. The Reiki-free pot of nasturtiums germinated incompletely, and had one plant dominate the others...the Reiki pot had 100% germination and all plants grew at an equal rate. They bloomed a little later, but all together. Fascinating, but needs to be tried with lots of different species in lots of places. Who wants a go??

"Black Bamboo" Morikami Gardens, MR, 2013

"Sarasota Mermaid" MR 2014

Reiki: Good for Plants?

I finished my Level 2 Reiki training last year, and I'm thoroughly enjoying my new practice. Reiki is a Japanese-derived (now international) form of stress reduction, healing, and relaxation. Reiki has been around for nearly a century now. It's primarily used with people and sometimes animals, in homes, clinics, and hospitals. Some practitioners have been using Reiki in their gardens, but there's been no research on plant Reiki that I can find.

Morikami Japanese Gardens, Delray Beach, Florida, MR

I'm thinking of developing a research project, as controlled as possible given that it won't be done in a lab, that looks for a possible correlation between Reiki and plant growth/ health. Tillies seem like a good choice for subjects, as they are small, portable, and don't involve dirt.

Are there any other Reiki practitioners who also garden out there who'd like to try along with me, once I develop a home-based protocol? Could be interesting!

If you're curious and want to get involved, let me know!