Swiss cheese-free zone

July 05, 2004

Swiss cheese-free zone

I am in Vienna for Blogtalk 2.0. The only observations I have to make in a horticultural sense are as follows:

1. My hotel room is plantless, unlike the picture on the hotel's website, which promised a Swiss Cheese plant (a member of the philodendron family). Very disappointing: a plant always adds a certain tranquility to a room, even if it is considered to be a bit of a 70s throwback among houseplant enthusiasts. Other 70s throwbacks include spider plants and tall spindly rubber plants. (side note: my room also has hessian wallpaper. I kid you not.)

2. The Viennese have a thing about topiary (see photo).

5 Jul 2004 11:00:18 | Me me me

2 Comments

Plants would probably be scared to hell by the screams of the trans-adolescent hordes that populate the hote....

Posted by: JJ | July 06, 2004 at 09:36 AM

I can't remember the last time I saw a spider plant. They were all over our house when I was a child, along with several coleus, all in different colours.

Posted by: Pamela | July 07, 2004 at 08:49 PM

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BlogTalk I am going to be at BlogTalk 2.0 in Vienna on Monday and Tuesday - I am giving a talk on Tuesday morning about weblogs and I'll be blogging about the conference on my work blog. I'll also try to get in a couple of posts on what Vienna has to offer in terms of gardens: looking at the guidebook there are a few places I'd like to check out, so stay tuned for words and pics from Austria.

Hot stuff I am very excited by the progress being made by my Jalamex chilli plant. It was the only seed that germinated from a pack of about eight, so it's a miracle that it's made it through the perils of life as a seedling (damping off, too much water, not enough water, pests) to make it to the brink of fruiting. The lack of pollinating insects on my lounge windowsill necessitated a bit of assistance from my fingertip, rubbing the pollen from one waxy white flower to another. The result is three bean-sized chillis. No matter how many times I see...