Monday, February 13, 2017

Schlumbergera seedling no. 119

Another white from the NOID white (previously: 283A Migaloo).


One thing I've enjoyed about the white seedlings is that there's a substantial set of new name possibilities for them. Three out of the four nominees this time wouldn't make sense for a non-white seedling. They are: I Made It All Up, Ice Castle, Magician's Dove, and There Would Be Peace.

I Made It All Up is a reference to the previously-linked piece from the Portal 2 soundtrack. To my mind, it sort of sounds like white Schlumbergera flowers look.

The white Schlumbergeras wind up looking semi-transparent against the black background sometimes. This particular seedling's pictures don't show that particularly well, but it's been a problem occasionally for some of the others. Hence Ice Castle, an elaborate white/transparent structure.


Magician's Dove should be more or less self-explanatory: Schlumbergera flowers usually look a little like birds, because of the way the petals are flung away from the stamens and pistil. And what's a really white bird? Exactly.

I'm not clear where There Would Be Peace came from exactly: possibly some association from white to doves to peace, and then backing off of a straightforward "peace" name because it seemed like tempting fate. And I have to say, I kind of like it because it's sort of an unfinished thought. It begs for an if, or but, or except for on the end.


So okay. Let's winnow.

It's a pretty strong group; I think I could be happy with any of these names. But I Made It All Up has the least direct connection to the appearance of the seedling -- in theory, anything could be named I Made It All Up -- and I have to drop something, so I'll let this one go.

And there's nothing wrong with Ice Castle at all, though when you look at search engine results, ice castles tend to photograph a little blue. Which the seedling is not. I mean, I'm never going to get a blue Schlumbergera, so I could overlook this, but I have to come up with reasons to throw some names out; this reason's as good as any.


Which leaves Magician's Dove or There Would Be Peace, and I'm going to go with the latter on the grounds that it feels more me. Which is to say, I could imagine any number of people tasked with naming a white Schlumbergera eventually landing on Magician's Dove, but it sure feels like I'm the only person who would come up with There Would Be Peace.

Perhaps I'm being delusional about my own specialness. Sometimes that happens. But in any case, it's the name I feel drawn to. So: 119A There Would Be Peace.


4 comments:

Unknown said...

A couple of random ideas for a white flower name: Marshmallow Madness, Zefir (Russian confection that is traditionally chalk-white in color).

Paul said...

Additional future options:
Wedding Dress
Iceflow
Diaphanous Gown (particularly if you get a highly translucent one)
London Fog
Vision of Innocence
Abominable Snowman

Your right, lots of name ideas come to mind for a white one.

Unknown said...

Not really related to this post specifically, but I've noticed that we haven't seen many Random plant event, New plant, or Saturday morning Sheba picture posts recently. Have I missed something along the way or is it not very eventful at the moment outside of the Schlumergera/Anthurium breeding world?

mr_subjunctive said...

handofthesly:

There just haven't been any new plants in a very long time (and the last few new plants, going back a few years if I remember correctly, were all Anthuriums that have since been purged). Sheba's still around, but she doesn't fluctuate much in appearance from day to day, so it seemed kind of redundant to keep taking photos. (Also she doesn't like the camera, presumably because of the flash, so it's kind of a pain to get photos of her.)

There have been some random plant events (true flowers on Aechmea 'Del Mar,' blooms on the Cyperus alternifolius, a few small Polyscias seedling developments), which I haven't written about because: 1) there were so many Anthurium and Schlumbergera seedlings to get through, 2) I don't find these things particularly interesting, and 3) they seemed like a bit more work than Schlumbergera posts, though in practice I'm not sure that's actually true.