Welcome to the Plants and Pipettes Advent Calendar 2019!
Every day you’ll find a new entry for our advent calendar here.
We wish you happy holidays and lots of plants!
Advent Calendar Day 21 – Bye-Bye Bitterness - Vegemite, Britney Spears, brussel sprouts – you rather love them or hate them (for me it goes hate, love, love). Tegan just wrote about her distain for the sprouts (and how all cabbages are related) and I‘m here to mansplain how she might just not have had the new, good stuff. 
Advent Calendar Day 20 – Crestaceous Park - Friday is podcast day. This week, we talk about the mystery of the angiosperm explosion during the crestaceous period when flowering plants suddenly took over the ecosystems and when dinosaurs roamed the earth. You can find the podcast here and in all common podcast players. This post is part of our advent calendar. You can… Read More »Advent Calendar Day 20 – Crestaceous Park
Advent Day 19 – Pine Cooler - Nothing induces memories quite like smells. Especially in winter, different smells trigger warm emotional responses: the smell of cotton candy, fried sausages and cheap mulled wine makes people reminiscence of Christmas markets. The smell of pine gives us that lovely feeling of sitting in front of a Christmas tree on a cold but exciting morning.… Read More »Advent Day 19 – Pine Cooler
Advent Day 18-Brits and Brussel Sprouts - It began with a Christmas Card, which only caught my eye because of the Penguins.* But the penguins were holding a small placard – the protesting kind, and the placard read ‘down with sprouts’. *Penguins are the greatest. It goes Plants, Cats, Penguins. Although some penguins are probably even better than some cats. I didn’t… Read More »Advent Day 18-Brits and Brussel Sprouts
Advent Day 17- The Yule Cat - Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading up on the various Christmas traditions of different cultures in search for some inspo for this Advent Calendar. And I think I’ve found my favourite.
Advent Day 16- Volvox looks like a Christmas Bauble - When I was young, I loved The Sound of Music.
Advent Day 15 – A cushion not to rest your head on - Those who love winter usually love it for the opportunity to wrap oneself in a blanket, sit by the fire and enjoy the cozy indoor heat. Well, plants don’t have that luxury, most of them have to stay outside (despite Tegan’s best efforts to give them all a warm home). And for some, winter is… Read More »Advent Day 15 – A cushion not to rest your head on
Advent Day 14- Not to be outdone, the Kiwis also have a New Zealand Christmas Tree - As I was reading fun facts about my beloved West Australian Christmas tree, wikipedia had the audacity to note that New Zealand also has its own Christmas tree. And I suspect it just might be better.
Advent Day 13 – Mistletoes - We’re back! The podcast took a short break for a few weeks but now, it is back, and it’s going strong. This week, we’re talking about not one but two papers – at the same time! We’re all about mistletoe, present you our favourite plant and so much more. It feels good to be back. You… Read More »Advent Day 13 – Mistletoes
Advent Day 12- The German Christmas Pickle - The conversation went a bit like this:
Advent Day 11- Australian Christmas Tree - Growing up in Australia, we had a bunch of Christmas traditions that anyone from the far North (Eurasia and North America) might consider strange. Christmas in my hometown of Perth commonly reaches 40+ degrees C (104 F), so we swap snow with swimming, and often favour seafood and salad over hot turkey roast. There’s even… Read More »Advent Day 11- Australian Christmas Tree
Advent Calendar Day 10 – Plants who prepare for goats - I don’t understand why someone would put a spiky, angry little plant as a decorative element in their own home. For some reason however, holly made the cut of nice-to-have decorative plants, even though it is ready to stab me at any moment. If it only wasn’t for goats, then it would be a perfectly… Read More »Advent Calendar Day 10 – Plants who prepare for goats
Advent Day 9 – It’s beginning to smell a lot like Christmas - When you think of Christmas, you probably have a pretty good visual. But do you also have a good nose-ual? (smellual? scentual? someone help me with this). Basically what I’m asking is – when you think of Christmas, what scents come to mind?
Advent Calendar Day 8: The place Christmas trees grow - Do you know where your Christmas tree is from? Chances are you can pinpoint the nursery that grew the trees in your local area, but where did they get the seeds?
Advent Day 7: Mystery plant - If you just saw the cover image, would you known what the post was about? How about now?:
Advent Day 6 – an audio blog on Poinsettia, caterpillars and acid - Today, it’s podcast release day. And as we’re both far from being fit, this is not a regular fun full episode, it is an irregular fun focused episode. It is about a post you might have read – but did you listen to Joram’s soothing voice read it to you on your way to work?… Read More »Advent Day 6 – an audio blog on Poinsettia, caterpillars and acid
Advent Calendar Day 5 – Forever green - Winter would be that much sadder without the green that remains on some trees – like our beloved Christmas trees conifers. They resist the peer pressure of other trees that drop their foliage as soon as it gets a little bit colder.
Advent Day 4 – Kranz means ‘wreath’ in German - Given that you should, right about now, be decorating and hanging thematic wreaths on your doors, walls, loved ones and pets, I thought it might be a good time to ask you if you had heard about Kranz Anatomy.
Advent Day 3 – Pretty Poinsettias, and the Caterpillars that spray them with acid. - Look, I don’t even think we need a leading paragraph. That title speaks for itself…
Advent Day 2 – Poinsettia - Next up on the ‘plants we associate with Christmas’ roundabout is the Poinsettia (aka, Euphorbia pulcherrima). Here are five fast facts about these red and green beauties.
Advent Day 1 – The First Christmas Tree - While Christmas trees are now ubiquitous and popular, the tradition of erecting a pine or fir in the confines of a home is relatively new. Using evergreens as a reminder of the better, as in warmer, times is an older tradition but it was Martin Luther, the protestant reformer, who is credited with coming up… Read More »Advent Day 1 – The First Christmas Tree
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