Trumpets

Caden has a veritable green house in his bedroom.  He has a grow light with plants galore underneath it, and he also has plants that he has grown all over his room.  He tries to plant any seed that he can get his hands on.  He has grown a cotton plant (from a seed), mango, stevia(a natural sweetener) pomegranate his own patio oranges, cactus', venus fly traps, and more plants than I even know of.  If I want basil while I am cooking, I can go grab some off of his basil plant. He has also learned to take cuttings from other plants and grow things from cuttings. If he sees a plant that he thinks is interesting, he takes a leaf from it and starts one of his own. He tells me things that I know nothing about like, "mom we could hand pollinate that and then..." He loves plants and he loves science and his hobby combines the two. For the last couple of years he has been nursing along a "three-in-one" angel trumpet. It's been a really neat, large-leaved, tropical-looking addition to his room:

Many times it has looked like it was going to die.  He figured out that it had spider mites and read about, concocted and applied a solution that killed them.  Some time later the leaves started falling off and we thought for sure it would die, but he re-potted it and it took off once again and began to flourish. Then last week it bloomed!

it's grown even longer since these pictures!

 It is so fragrant at night that  I don't think I would be able to sleep in the same room with it, but Caden is so happy that it finally made it, that he doesn't seem to mind. And the next flower is opening up white!