Orange begonias.  The Grateful Dead were obviously not gardeners.

Sometimes I stop myself and realize–with equal parts pleasure and alarm–what a true geeckoid I am.  I was gardening the other day, digging holes for tulip bulbs, and was listening to the Grateful Dead on my iPod.  The song was “Scarlet Begonias” and while listening to the lyrics my thoughts went something like this:

“Oh, funny, how appropriate.  ***song is going*** “She wore scarlet begonias tucked into her curls..” Wait?  What?  First, is there even such a thing as “scarlet begonias”?  Yes, there are, I remember seeing a vivid red variety called “Non stop bright red” this spring.  But begonias have stems that break very easily and the flowers fall apart, and they ooze because they’re sort-of succulent like.  No one would put those in their hair, they’re not suitable, he must have confused them with another flower–roses maybe, they have that album cover with roses on it–wait, no one would confuse roses with begonias, roses are the most recognizable of all the flowers.  Maybe he [the writer of the lyrics]  just liked the word “begonia” but didn’t know what he was talking about.  They were stoned a lot from all reports.  Holy crap, why am I spending so much time thinking about this?”

When I mentioned the idea of begonias in someone’s hair to my mother (a master gardener) she said

“No one would do that, they ooze”.

At least I don’t have to wonder where I get it from. Hooray for genetics!