Wednesday Vignette: Roots over branches

This week for Wednesday Vignette, I'm sharing a scene from the propagation house at Cistus Nursery. There's a hoard collection of Aeonium spending the winter there, and they are doing all manner of crazy things, and that's only what I've been able to observe. Who knows what shenanigans they get into when everyone goes home for the day. The cool, humid conditions in the greenhouse right now have these Mediterranean succulents in "grow mode," especially their roots, and not just beneath the soil. It's kind of funny to see roots hanging from the branches. We in the temperate zones of the world don't typically see things like this. They're so delicate, an almost translucent white with the faintest hint of pink, gradually darkening through amber to brown as you go further up the spray of roots. What in interesting opportunity to observe root structure, though it would be totally different in the soil. I also like this angle from an artistic sense, with the curving stems backed by the weathered wood at one end of the greenhouse, the little succulent blooming in the background, and the Sansevieria photobomb.

 If you use your imagination, and squint a bit, you can picture the roots as one of those Christmas trees made of lights strung up vertically. That's about as Christmas-y a post as I plan to do this year. The post I have planned for Friday is another installation on my plant evaluations. Wednesday Vignette is hosted by Anna of Flutter & Hum. She usually has a much deeper, more insightful post than I, so pop over to have your thoughts provoked or inspired.