Pasque Flowers and Indoor Peppers

New Mexico Joe Parker pepper in our house

 I am growing a New Mexico Joe Parker pepper indoors with success, if that can be measured by the peppers it is producing.  Of course, being an indoor plant, there are no bees to pollinate the flowers.  I pollinate them by hand with a kids' paintbrush.  All the un-pollinated flowers and their stems simply dry up and drop off, so you can have total control over how many peppers you want the plant to grow.  Potted peppers need a generous-sized pot.  Both tomatoes and peppers have large root systems.

Outdoors, I captured the growth of a Pulsatilla vulgaris on a sunny slope, where it started blooming recently.  The video started in the last week of April, with a day of snow at the beginning.  This video shows 13 days of growth, with a still shot taken every 10 minutes.  The plant "bows it head" every evening and stretches its flowers towards the sun.