Cotton

Flowers on our rogue cotton plants reminded me I hadn't posted a page I did last year showing how the flower turns into a boll.

 Firstly I guess I'd better say why we have rogue cotton plants in our garden!! A couple of years ago I asked a friend to get us some cotton so I could get some of the bolls. It got left on the verandah too long & kinda self sowed in the garden. We have a mini crop down the side of the house + one lone plant near our driveway. 

 We've just left it there for now & it's flowering for the 2nd year. Some has already flowered & developed cotton bolls. The one near the driveway seems to do it later than the others. 

 When it flowered last year I took a series of photos to show how a cotton boll develops. It was around the time there were news reports that lots of students didn't know that cotton grew on plants. So I decided to make a scrapbook page.

 When cotton is grown commercially it is defoliated before the cotton pickers strip off the bolls so new plants are planted each year. Ours has been thriving on neglect, including a lack of water at times. We'll eventually pull it out I guess, but I've enjoyed watching it grow.

Cotton Australia has a classroom section on it's website that has a online book showing how to grow a pair of jeans! There's also other info about cotton on there.






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