fall bloom

Judy Glattstein jglatt@ptd.net
Wed, 10 Sep 2003 17:26:24 PDT
Decades ago we had a little house in Norwalk, Connecticut. I had a couple of
fluorescent light units in the basement for growing plants. They were behind
a knotty pine board false wall for the finished part of the basement, in the
space between the wall and the foundation. In summer, when the cyclamen were
dormant, I would turn the lights off. And take a look sometime in August or
early September and there would be pale little shoots, somewhat etiolated,
questing for light. Now these plants were dry, no light either natural or
artificial, and I would think that the temperature in such a below grade
setting was relatively uniform. Puzzling, and perhaps even a little scary.
How did they know when to wake up?

Judy


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