Happiness is a new plant

Nothing makes a botanist happier than a new plant particularly if it is something a bit unusual, a bit out of the ordinary, a bit rare.  Well, looky, looky what TPP has gotten as a gift from a colleague, a dwarf, African water lily, Nymphaea thermarum.  Here's a link to the Kew Gardens web page about this plant. It's pretty new to science so it's great fun to have such a plant, but it's extinct in the wild.  This is such a great plant, the world's smallest waterlily, and the only one to grow on the surface of hot mud rather than in water. TPP likes examining how unusual plants grow, and to see if they have any particular adaptations for their particular way of life. You only find out about such things by watching them grow and reproduce very carefully. 

How to make someone happy

Based on a recent observation, it's pretty simple to make someone really happy - send them cookies.  This morning while waiting for my pusher to prepare my caffeine fix, a couple of foreign students came in with a package from home (the post office is nearby). There was such excitement.  The box wasn't very big, but it was packed with different kinds of cookies, in this particular case Chinese cookies, familiar treats for a student studying a long ways from home. There was pure joy and happiness in that moment. So think about it; send someone some cookies. 

Who's happy? Doesn't surprise me!

As virtually all gardeners can attest there is something very satisfying about working with plants.  TPP knows a lot of botanists, and virtually all of them love being a botanist, although they may not like being an academic, but this is something of a different matter.  No matter how disappointing a garden may be one year, gardeners are out there planting the next, a very optimistic attitude.  You can't be a defeatist and garden.  A colleague once said, "It takes a particularly sophisticated and mature intellect to appreciate something as subtle and elegant as a plant".  Well, hard to disagree with that.  And perhaps this leads to a healthy attitude about life in general, certainly a major factor in being happy, so no surprise that this survey finds that "plant people" are the happiest people.  Growing plants keeps you active and interested.  You don't need reality shows to amuse yourself.  All kinds of bloggers complain about the negativity of the internet, but TPP gets very few negative comments.  Questions directed to this blog are almost all people wanting to understand or learn something new, very positive things.  Another news story said that people were more satisfied with wanting something than with having the thing they wanted.  Maybe it's the garden catalogs thing all the time; plant people so very much want their plants to grow well, look beautiful, and produce with profusion even though this only happens every now and again.  So you always have something to work toward, never having that empty feeling than comes from nothing to look forward to.  This botanical blogger is still having fun with plants, and he intends to continue until time comes to be composted.  Do us plant people need a "I grow plants, so I'm happy!" t-shirt or bumper sticker?  Oh, and who are the most miserable people?  Bankers!