Thursday April 17, 2003

Bowiea Volubilis

Each spring we open the cabinet under the sink to find the first pale green shoots emerging from our Sea Onion. Faith got it as a present, if I remember correctly, and we go through this cycle of storing it in the dark after its stems shrivel up each fall and bringing it out in spring for another display of strange growth. It is mostly stem, an endless extrusion that will eventually fill the window frame. Nature's own doodle.

Some of the companies I've worked for have been like plants. The Sea Onion companies dedicate all of their effort on infrastructure and lose sight of the overreaching goal: end product. The opposite are those with such a stunning array of blossoms and fruit that the plant is ultimately crushed under its own weight. Engineering vs. Marketing driven.

The Sea Onion is an idealistic open source project where the UI guys never showed up.

A few years ago I bought a book on houseplants and looked up our strange house guest.

Bowiea Volubilis

So many of the plants in this book can be classed as both popular and attractive. The Sea Onion or Climbing Onion is neither -- it is both rare and repulsive. It is grown only as a novelty, so that visitors can express their surprise. Easier to find in the US than Britain -- look for it in the catalogues of specialist nurseries.

One variety only -- Bowiea volubilis. The large above ground bulb produces straggly stems in winter. A few short-lived leaves and small greenish flowers appear before the stems die down in late spring.

The House Plant Expert
Dr. D. G. Hessayon
(1st pub. Great Britain 1960)


Michelle • 2003-07-14 05:30pm

Do you know where I can get one? I have the pregnant onion and have had it for years and just love its oddity. Would like to add the sea onion. Thanks
jerry • 2003-07-14 05:50pm

No idea.

Ours came from someone years and years ago as a gift for house sitting. I haven't seen one in stores since.



"I'm offering you my body, and you're offering me semantics." - Mark Pilgrim



My brother pointed out that this log is on BlogShares so I went ahead and "claimed" my thriving blog company. Something happened in the past 24 hours which drove the valuation from sixty four to over thirteen hundred dollars. You should buy some. ":^)

Not that it means anything. It seems safer than investing real money in, presumably, real companies on Wall Street. Besides, they give you five hundred bucks to invest however you like. Click the logo below to buy your own Jer Zone stocks, then I can issue more shares, split and split and split, dilute it all to hell, and then do a leveraged buy out. I have no clue what any of that means.

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TedHieron • 2003-04-22 09:16am

Ask Faith; she knows *everything*!