December 10th, 2011: Begonia corms (Photo credit: karenblakeman)

Just a quickie this morning.  I am working on this last research paper and can’t spend time doing fun things like blogging. It will be awhile longer before I get around to visiting my blog friends, perhaps another week?  Please forgive me. 

Meanwhile, spring came this week and all those plants I ordered in January are now arriving, so when I take a break it is to go outside and plant something or pull weeds. Yesterday, my $50 tuberose begonia corm arrived. Its going into a special pot on the porch.  I bought in a moment of impulse.  I told David “Don’t eat it!” I mean who has time for cooking?  Then I told him how much it cost and he said “What?”  Okay I admit it is a luxury.  I don’t have many luxuries, but I wanted to try my hand at growing begonia corms again (I killed the others I had).

My excuse is that I am half Dutch and buying bulbs, corms, rhizomes is a genetic defect.  I am sure you have all heard about the Dutch obsession with tulips called tulipmania?  No one can explain it and no one is quite as fanatical. When she sailed here as an immigrant at the end of the nineteenth century, my great grandma Juntje brought iris rhizomes in her skirt pockets.  Speaking of which, its back to my research paper.  Have a good day.