ION the sentence "what kind of drunk ass wagon circus is this" is stuck in my head. from where no idea. my brain is like a merry go round things just get stuck there.

I had spray-painted the old allium seedheads silver in what I was trying to make my moon garden a couple of weeks ago. I've been seeing visitors taking pictures of them! I've also been getting visitors asking what the heck they were and if they were naturally silver.

Because I am a jerk, and I've just trained my interns to use the engraver and for the first time in years have been able to start labeling plants again, I got it in my head that I should label the painted plants.

I brainstormed with a regular visitor. The first label we came up with was

Allium silvestrum pictum Silvered Moon Orbs

Apparently the "pict" part means paint in latin.

Then later she came up with the brilliant idea to name them "Juled Caprice" because I had joked that I should've given them a cultivar name. And, well, there are actually four or five different alliums that I used. So that's both our names --we were joking about how she was a pioneer in the hort world with discovering and naming a new plant.

I also figure that if I give enough fake and differing names, people will get the joke even if they don't know latin.

I'm glad I told my ED of my evil scheme, because even he had no clue if it was natural or not.

Methinks I should write something up for the website so it's more above-boards and not an asshole move. Maybe kind of a jokey "new plants discovered at ___!" and go into moon gardens and night pollinators and the sculptures on the grounds (the one right next to the moon garden is silver, hence my chosen colour).

I'm going to Kilimanjaro in January

Ooh! That's exciting!

I also figure that if I give enough fake and differing names, people will get the joke even if they don't know latin.

Nah. People will totally believe it's real.

I'm going to Kilimanjaro in January

Wow! That will be an amazing trip!

So maybe I need a label that is more obvious?

Rustoleum Silver Flowering Onion Allium pseudo-silvum?

Allium fakus paintus?

Wow! That will be an amazing trip!

Yeah. I'm really excited, but also kind of terrified. 19,000 feet, forsooth. I had enough trouble in Cuzco, which is... damn, only 11,000 ft asl. I've got to get a prescription for diamox, that's for sure.

I've got an old book written by a woman who lived in Kenya in the 60s and 70s who describes the grief suffered by people climbing Kilimanjaro. The altitude sickness was apparently horrific.

Allium fakus paintus?

Yeah, something like that!

I've got an old book written by a woman who lived in Kenya in the 60s and 70s who describes the grief suffered by people climbing Kilimanjaro. The altitude sickness was apparently horrific.

Altitude sickness causes grief? I didn't know that.

Although, the correct botanic name would be Allium fakum paintum. Which is kind of extra hilarious to me. (I don't know or undersand latin, but have noticed that the genus and species always have the same ending).

Well, metaphoric grief, though if someone had followed through on the desire to kill someone in their party, the grief would have been real.

Oh, to see altitude sickness at work, Michael Palin's series on crossing the Himalaya is educational. They nearly had to ship him out of there.