Monday, October 12, 2009

You have to give people their props when they get it right


There are new brochures being produced and boxes going up in all? the collections at the National Arboretum; I'm very pleased with the style (same as this) and location of our boxes in the Asian Collection, but Wow! You really couldn't do any better than this. That's the Friendship Garden at Arbor House.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

This one caught my eye among the larger deeper colored pumpkins


One of the wonderful things about the internet is how easily obscure things can be identified. Google the noun, in this case pumpkin, and a few adjectives, I started with pale and warty, hit images and there's your, actually my, pumpkin! It works with insects, reptiles, plants, whatever. Of course just seeing a picture that looks like what you're trying to identify is no guarantee that you've got it, but more research is easy; a few keystrokes, a few clicks, and you can confirm or reject your tentative identification.

It's not a perfect system; sometimes you find an exact irrefutable match for your unknown posted without a name. I find this happens a lot with particularly beautiful or interesting objects. Sometimes I have to try a few descriptors before I get there. Still, it's a good system, or a least a place to start.

Cucurbita maxima 'Brodé D'Galeux Eysines' is a heck of a name for a pumpkin. From the French for "embroidered with pebbles from Eysines”. Cucurbita maxima is a taxa of Winter Squash, a few of whose selections are often referred to as pumpkins. This seems to be a universally admired fruit, obviously a French heirloom variety, and tasty too!