#pressuregradient

[shanghaijim]

Today’s Appalachia: my husband, a gay NPR journalist, spends time with his conservative grandparents on our porch in eastern Tennessee.

[andrewsplants]

What's the first memory you have in which botany captivated you? What did that feel like?

I remember when I’d first started working at the garden centre I was pretty fascinated by the uncurling fern fronds on the Ostrich Ferns we’d gotten. I remember how neat the patterns (spirals and more) were and being a little bit shocked at how fast they grew. I think that was when I first started looking more closely at everything else around me at the store and at home and realized how interesting plants could be.

[andrewsplants]

pressuregradient said:Beautiful! I usually don’t put mine up until after Thanksgiving. You’re on point!

Thanks. And that's just one of the benefits of Canadian Thanksgiving :)

[andrewsplants]

I gather you work with GIS. But you're clearly passionate about plants. Talk about that hobby, how it started and why it's satisfying for you.

I’ve always been surrounded by plants. I remember playing with snapdragons at my grandmother’s house when I was young, and my parents were pretty big into gardening when they were young and always had some houseplants as well. Growing up my mom would also try to teach me the names of common plants like Petunias,Geraniums, and Tulips.

In 2005 I got a job at a local garden centre. I knew basically nothing about plants but there were some excellent people I worked closely with, including a guy who was really passionate about perennials. He sort of picked up on the fact that I was interested and told me about all the most interesting things that were around. Which is really what got me interested in it.

I learned so much from him and kept looking for more information online. I loved the strange and obscure and ultimately got tired of the job which kept bringing me back to the same old plants over and over and the same questions from customers. I wanted to talk to people about these weird and wonderful plants and they wanted to talk about what was easiest and longest flowering.

I guess I love the patterns and the changes that happen. I loved watching Ostrich Fern fronds uncurl the first time I saw it at the store. I love the way new growth explodes from nothing in the early spring. I love seeing something do it’s thing and look it’s best and then seeing something else start to take off as it slows down and finishes. I love seeing (more with indoor, but really any) plant in my care doing well and getting bigger and growing and flowering.

[andrewsplants]

pressuregradient replied to your post:Summer is finally happening here, are there any pants that are currently in bloom or will be in bloom shortly that people should try to see?

He asked about pants, man. TELL US ABOUT THE PANTS

At first I was going to try to get him to re-send the question sans-typo. Then I was going to try to edit it after I posted the answer. Then I was going to write about pants that bloom when I realized I have know idea what that means. Do they open when it gets sunnier or it gets warmer?

[andrewsplants]

pressuregradient asked: "What’s your favorite map projection, and why? Least favorite and why?"

My favourite map projection has always been the Goode Homolosine since I was a kid. Robinson/Winkel Tripel are both really nice as well. I like the idea of representing something round using something round.

Least favourite has to be any map that tries to correct the Mercator projection by trying to flatten the tops and bottoms. I do not deny that the Mercator has issues, more to do with the use of the map than the map itself, but correcting these issues can be done in more elegant ways than just flattening it. See Robinson/WT, for example.