Epic Fail.

I was going to have a blog post about just how well our Slc Kagaribi Dawn 'Red Star' was doing in the next few days. As well as the two flowers blogged in the first post, it had first shown signs of 2 more flower buds, then 3 and now 4!

Then, this morning, I thought I'd help the flowers to present a little better; one of the buds (the newest and closest to the main stem) was folded on top of the leaf; I decided it would look better under the leaf. So I tried gently persuading it to go there.

Snap

Drop

Gasp.

Looks like they're a lot less pliable that you would think. I had previously persuaded the other blooms to move into a new position (above the leaf) - but they were older and I guess the stems were longer and more pliable.

So this morning, I managed to snap what would have been 4 perfect blooms right off. Like an idiot :/

Sadness.

Warning: Much sadness below.

You can just about make out the buds on this shot from a couple of days ago,
on the stem at the left behind the flowers.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once had flowers. 4 of them. Moments ago. :(

:(

Surely I can just push it back? No.

Fantastic Flowers. Could have had 6 :/

I tried "grafting" it back on, but it was impossible, there wasn't enough stalk, and the buds were so heavy they kept on pulling apart from the rest of the plant. And the wound started to go brown and "scab" very quickly, so I had to give up.

As they say on the Internets... EPIC FAIL. :(

Arghh.

Two days of "bad luck" at OOAB.

Edit:

In a related note, Tinus from Plantae.co.za sent me a message about the blog (I put a link in to my my signature when I emailed him asking about an order):

Hi James

Had a look at the blog. It looks interesting. We are starting our own and it should be running soon.

About the plant you bought from Michael – the reason you cannot find it on the RHS register is because the name is incorrect. It should be Kagaribi Dawn. Hope you did not buy it with the incorrect name?

Regards

Tinus

So at least it looks like my diagnosis of what this plant's name should be is right. A rather tiny consolation!