Today’s Zippy, with poignant seasonal nostalgia (Christmas Day snow on nearly deserted streets) along with the usual budget of Zippy oddness (imagined aliens from Neptune, Macadamia nuts, and Perry Mason):
(#1)
The title — Snowtopia — is a wintry portmanteau, of snow and Utopia.
Turns out that the portmanteau has been used in quite a different context, as the name of a variety of the flower bacopa (sometimes named Sutera cordata, now properly Chaenostoma cordatum),
the flower-happy trailing plant that blooms profusely in spring and fall and even intermittently through summer. It thrives in sun or shade, seems untroubled by pests and diseases, and has tireless bloom strength.
(#2)
The photo is of the variety Snowtopia. The ad copy is from Park Seed Co., announcing that the reliable (and most commonly white) bacopa was now available as seeds. (Other companies made similar announcements.) I posted on the plant (with a photo of the variety Snowstorm) on this blog on 6/17/13.
For lovers of portmanteaus, several companies also offer seeds of the blue variety Blutopia.
