TINY TUESDAY - WOULDN'T YOU JUST KNOW IT...

...off theme again!  Mind you, I’m not that bothered, because I’m not sure that I could find an imprint or a stamp that would be small enough.

I had already taken several shots of my tiny orchid that is blooming again, but then noticed some of the tulips that Mr. HCB bought by proxy for me last week - in my favourite colour too.  They were looking decidedly unhappy in their vase and although I like tulips when they are past their best, they hadn’t got to the dried up stage yet.  In fact, when I looked inside this one, and moved it slightly some of the petals fell off.

Now what was I going to do?  Well, my iPhone didn’t “cut the mustard” as far as sharpness was concerned, so I got out my little Lumix camera and took a few shots and it was at this point, going in close, that another petal fell off - and now there was only one left.

Undeterred, but trying to keep at least one petal on the tulip, I reasoned that the “Tiny” part of this shot was the pistil, which is the female part of a flower - made up of the sticky stigma, the pale creamy parts at the top which is above the ovary which holds the eggs.  The pod contains dozens of seeds, and seedlings will grow in the same spot for a couple of summers until they form a bulb large enough to produce a flower.

The male part of the tulip is the stamen, which are bright orange in this shot and this sits on top of the filament.  

However, the bulbs also grow new offshoots off their main root after the flowers bloom. Two to six small new bulbs will form that can eventually become mature tulips, allowing the flowers to spread.

So now you know - and apparently, it is best to snap off the seed pods before the tulips start to seed, the same as with daffodils, so that all the nutrients and energy flow down into the bulb ready for it to bloom next year.  

Something that should never be done is to cut off the leaves etc before they have died back.  Mr. HCB’s father was adamant about this and always tied the leaves down - using the tiny pieces of string that were on a bigger ball found in his shed after his death.  Many years ago, packages used to come through Royal Mail tied up with string and he had obviously saved them for years and years - the ball of string was twice the size of a tennis ball!  They were very thrifty in those days and wasted nothing.  

Stay warm and safe - Storm Jocelyn is on the way!  We had to ring the roof company yesterday, because one of the gable tiles was almost off and flapping in the wind.  The roof man said he would try and get to us by Wednesday - in the meantime, we just hope that it doesn’t fall off and go through our conservatory roof!