Man charged with groping women at Bard

COPAKE—They never treated it like royalty. They thought it was just some kind of cactus.

But when it started acting strange, this plant got their attention.

Thirty years ago, maybe more, Diane and Tom Cinque bought a little plant that looked sort of like an artichoke, except the leaves were darker green and edged in white.

Mr. Cinque likes cactuses, he told The Columbia Paper in an interview this week. He has several and he thought it would make a nice addition to his collection.

Sitting in a cozy sunroom off the deck of their Copake home, they told a reporter they don’t remember where they picked it up, maybe a nursery in New Jersey when they were visiting friends.

They do know it came in a four-inch pot and it didn’t cost more than three bucks.

Every year since they’ve had the plant, Mr. Cinque has followed the same routine: giving it a little water, a little fertilizer; putting it outside on the deck when the weather warms up and bringing it inside the sunroom when the weather gets cold.

The sunroom is not heated and the temperature can get down to 20 degrees in the winter.

He has repotted the plant a few times over the years, so now it’s in a 16-inch pot on wheels. The plant itself is about a foot high and wide.

This year, not too long after the plant took up residence outdoors in May, it started sprouting a long thin stalk from the middle of its rosette. (more…)