A passion

Passionflowers?. Passion" does not refer to love, but to the Passion of Christ on the cross. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish Christian missionaries discovered this flower and adopted its unique physical structures as symbols of Crucifixion. For example: the 72 radial filaments (or corona) represent the Crown of Thorns. The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles. The top 3 stigmata represent the 3 nails and the lower 5 anthers represent the 5 wounds.

The first time I saw one in person I cried. I'm not kidding either (I have little to no sense of humor) and I bought it right there. Over the next few years I carefully collected seeds from countries across the globe. Sneaking clippings from greenhouses and raising them carefully. The seeds can be a pain, requiring cold wet sand or intense lighting, but I carried on. Last count I was at 13 species and then a horrid early surprise frost killed off all my hard work, just like that.

I recently lost my last two plants and gave up. I don't have time for the seedlings anymore and buying a plant in the greenhouse can cost 40$+ I just couldn't justify it. Welllll...surprisingly, the other day at the market a woman had some sad looking, overgrown, starting to yellow passifloras. They were HUGE and I poked at them a bit...she came over to greet me.. "10$, all sizes, I need to get rid of them" had I an extra house I'd have picked them all up, but instead I carefully chose two, a red and a violet plant and I carried them home, refusing help, almost hugging the damned things.

Now, if you're familiar, you'll know in almost all cases a passionflower lasts ONE day. They're quite difficult to get to flower as it is and when they do, well yeah, one day per bud. Yesterday was a rather awful birthday, my eyes are still puffy and tender from crying and Iwas feeling pretty sorry for myself today as well. Still, I dusted myself off and listened to some Serj (of course) and worked a little. Just a moment ago I went upstairs to move my larger plant out of my father's way and sure enough, two red passionflowers open and spectacular. They came a day late but I'm still thrilled.

Those silly little flowers gave me a moment of "everything is right with the world" and a little hippyish "all we need is love" moment.