Magic Mimosa Plants give a thrill !

Here's another beauty from one of our new favorite customers, Katia, who bought one of our "Magic Mimosa" plants and got this gorgeous pot to put it in. Katia is thrilled to have this little gem as it holds great memories of her homeland in Puerto Rico.  Katia, along with many customers just love touching the leaves and seeing the plant literally "go to sleep" before their eyes.  It's playful and fun and fun and addictive !

You may say, "what is magic about it"? Well, here's the official, scientific explanation :

Mimosa pudica is well known for its "rapid plant movement"

Like a number of other plant species, it undergoes changes in leaf orientation termed "sleep" or nyctinastic movement. The foliage closes during darkness and reopens in light.  The leaves also close under various other stimuli, such as touching, warming, blowing, or shaking. These types of movements have been termed seismonastic movements. The movement occurs when specific regions of cells lose turgor pressure, which is the force that is applied onto the cell wall by water within the cell vacuoles and other cell contents. When the plant is disturbed, specific regions on the stems are stimulated to release chemicals including potassium ions which force water out of the cell vacuoles and the water diffuses out of the cells, producing a loss of cell pressure and cell collapse; this differential turgidity between different regions of cells results in the closing of the leaflets and the collapse of the leaf petiole

My goodness, that is a mouthful of scientific talk !

Anyhoo, we still have them and you can get yours at the Saturday Summer Market, in Williams Park, for 2 more weekends, as we wind down the Summer Market time.

Remember, the Market is located between 3rd and 4th streets, just off of 1st avenue north and there is plenty of parking all around.  The market still has a great assortment of Produce/Arts and Crafts/Foodstuff vendors and of course, our plants !!  Market hours are 9am-1pm, and we will be there come rain or shine (but maybe not lightning!)

Also, for you Yard Sale affectionados, our good friends who have the large 2 story pink & white adobe house at the corner of 9th street and 35th avenue north (right across from SweetBay), are having a blow out Yard sale tomorrow (Sat., Aug. 18th)..they have a full garage of a ton of great stuff, so drop on by and get some bargains, and you may see some of our plants there too!