Okay, so maybe it's technically like week 20 or 30...but hey! I WILL finish this project! Even if "52 weeks of Photos" ends up being a few years of photos!
So I have successfully accomplished week 7 of the 52 weeks of photos project, and by "successfully" I simply mean it's done. You can judge how successful the photos are. Be gentle...
I have had an obsession with celosia (aka: wool flower, cockscomb, coxcomb), since I was a young girl. My neighbor had a section right in front of her front porch filled with them for a summer or two and I loved to touch and stare at them when I was over there playing with her little girls. I always referred to them as "the brain flower." I never actually knew what they were called until a year or so ago. Even my neighbor couldn't remember what they were called when I asked her a few years ago.
I finally figured out what they were about a year or so ago when I saw them popping up in wedding flower photos while trying to pick out my own wedding flowers. I did end up using them within my bouquet and in some of my boutonnieres (though they were not the color I asked for, whoops!).
My lovely sister, who I adore, came across some celosia seeds when she was at a festival, or a farmer's market or something, and gave them to me for my birthday. Well, I've never been known to keep plants alive very well...and I've definitely never started one from seed! I decided to give it a go anyway. I did pretty well and they started thriving...and then my mother-in-law killed them while I was out of town! Ha! Maybe she doesn't like me so well? Kidding. I love that woman and I am pretty sure she feels the same for me...though she could be very good at faking it! (Love you Nova!) Besides, we decided it was the fault of the little kids splashing in the pool and getting the water in my flower pots. Poor flowers!
I originally had about 8-10 flowers. We were able to save a few, and then eventually I was left with only two. One red one and one yellow. The yellow one doesn't like me and is very blobular. It's sad, but such is life! The red one however is beautiful and becoming more and more brain like every day. I worry that the humid torture that is Florida will eventually destroy them (mold seems to be growing on the sides of the flower), I am enjoying them while I have them. I will attempt to plant more next year, and I am bound and determined to find and grow orange ones!
Now that my long winded story is finished, here is one of my celosia plants as seen by 5 different view points!
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