Howdy ! Hoping to find creative garden artists to throw ideas around with or humans that appreciate 3-D art in the garden. Forgive me as i am not computer savvy, so at the moment it would be torture for me to figure out how to send pictures via internet. When reading about Crocus vernus and how this plant will respond to the faintest rise in temperature, it was easy to visualize a steep slope with a rather large bed full of yellow to gold carpeting sedums. Under them would be the crocus bulbs (which would bloom deep purple) spaced closely together. Hidden under a thin layer of pea gravel mulch would be heater wires arranged to outline out a company logo or some sort of meaningful symbol. At the appropriate time the heater wire would be activated and with a crowd of people assembled (the type who would actually give a hoot) the forced vivid purple Crocus blooms would form the desired pattern. A wonderful way to celebrate the coming of spring ! Only problem would be is if the crocus decided to take it's sweet time opening up. In this case it would be best to instead employ a patient photographer who could catch this phenomenon at the right time and share it via internet.
Interesting notion, and perhaps the foundation for an interesting installation. Difficult as proposed, though, I think: the rapid response from C. vernus has only been forced in conditions which place the crocus in a heated jar--not sure a cable will provide the necessary atmospheric heat, and I'm not sure (based on a quick scan of the literature) that root zone heat will bring about the same rapid response. Second thing is: they only demonstrate this tendency when the buds are fully formed and nearly open, and this would presumably happen at a time when the air temperature was favorable to opening...so you will likely find that at the time the buds are in a suitable state, they would be spontaneously opening anyways on account of ambient temperature, and outside your control. It might be easier to conceive of this in the opposite fashion: when an installation involving C. vernus is close to blooming, or has just bloomed, use fans to blow cool air over the planting, causing them to close. At the appropriate time, shut off the cool air (and perhaps switch to blowing warm air) and as the air re-warms, they will re-open. If the temperature switch is sudden enough (as per blowing air), they might open near simultaneously. Not the same sudden flowering from nothing, but perhaps a way to achieve the momentary effect you describe. Intriguing though, and an interesting idea to hash out.
Thank You Woodschmoe for your fast reply. Was afraid that it would be too complicated, time consuming or too expensive to pull off. You have a wonderful brain and i really appreciate your feedback on that one. Have you ever created anything in a garden that made people wonder--- "How in the heck did that person pull that off ?" ?This is one of the greatest joys in life for me.
I think you might want something that has a bit less sensitivity to changes in temperature, myself -- 0.2C differential is very finicky, but if you have a 2C differential and a rapid response, you could possibly have something where the warming air rising from the heat being initially applied to the lower flowers will slowly work its way up. Though, I guess one would want to try and control the direction of air flow to follow the gradient of the slope. Still, might be possible. Interesting potential engineering - art - botany collaboration.
Good Morning to you Daniel, Appreciate your input. Canadians respond quicker to mental stimuli. Will keep the heat forcing idea in the back of my head. What do you brainiacs think about forcing fast bloom with the simple application of temperature controlled water in a pattern ? If say you have a drought tolerant planting that is kept dry with a clear or translucent roof overhead. A hidden drip irrigation line could be set up in a special pattern. To prevent osmosis from ruining the pattern there could be flexible vertical walls (flashing?) hiding underground flowing with the artwork. With the perfect plant choice(s) perhaps something very magical might be pulled off. My brother Tom is a wildflower nut. He told me how quickly certain desert wildflowers bloom when a rare rain comes. At the moment i don't know of a particular plant that fits the bill. It would have to be a sexy short one that jumps to attention in rather short order. There may very well be numerous genera that would work marvelously together for an art project such as this. Would also be a great spot to do time lapse photography. Thanks again, Scott
