It’s spring. Yeah, it’s spring!
I went out and bought flowers and put them in vases all over my house. I don’t know the names of the flowers I bought, but I liked them, so I bought them. I bought purple flowers, white flowers, yellow flowers and pink flowers.
I’m getting better at nurturing my plants too. In 2007, I received two plants when my husband passed away. I don’t remember who sent the plants to me, but they were very thoughtful gifts. At the time, I went to Smith and Hawkens with a friend and fell in love with this gardening shop and the gardening shop’s catalog.
Since I’m not very good at tending gardens, the saleswoman offered to pot my two plants, if I purchased the pots. I did buy two expensive pots, especially after she selected the perfect size pots to fit my multi-sized plants. (Wish I could find a saleswoman in a clothing store who would help me select clothes that would fit my multi-sized fiftysomething body like my multi-sized plants fit their pots.)
I was so proud of my two plants in their new pots. I put them in my family room right near the window, so they would get plenty of sunshine on sunny days.
I went back to Smith and Hawkens the following month and I decided to buy another pot. After all, if I was getting good at watering plants, I wanted to have more of them around me.
I bought a beautiful blue ceramic pot. “You should buy the watermelon plant to put in that pot,” said the saleswoman. What a fun shop that Smith and Hawkens gardening shop is, they entice budding gardeners like me into their shop with beautiful plants, orchids, flower pots, gardening tools, and I succumb. Soooooooo, I bought the watermelon plant (it doesn’t grow watermelons, the leaves just look like dark watermelon rinds). And, I’m so proud that my watermelon plant is still flourishing after more than a year.
Yes, for the past 18 months, I’ve been a better plant nurturer. I’m even getting good at taking care of flowering plants. My colleague at work gave me an African violet for my birthday. It was so sweet of her to give me such a nice present. I brought it home in January and thought for sure it was going to die under my tutelage. Despite my negativity with flowering plants, I set out to water my violets. I watered the violets twice a week. I made sure not to give them too little water or too much. I put the violets in a prime spot on the windowsill in my dining room right next to my watermelon plant.
And you know what? You know what? You know what? On Friday, this past Friday, on the first day of spring, when I went to water my little African violet plant, I noticed that there were two, two, two…not one, but two, two, two little pink violet flowers on the plant. Wow, I was so excited. I am getting soooooo good at taking care of my plants. (I was having an especially sad day because it was snowing outside on the first day of spring. But, these two little pink violets just perked me right up.)
So, yesterday I purchased two more flowering plants. It is spring, I thought to myself, and I am becoming such a good plant nurturer in my 50+ years. I didn’t visit Smith and Hawkens yet. Next weekend, if all goes well, I will take my two cyclamens for their pot fittings. I do hope that the nice saleswoman will be so kind and agree to pot my two flowering plants. I may be a good plant waterer and plant nurturer, but I am not good with dirt yet.
It’s spring. Yeah, it’s spring. My flowers are flourishing and so are my plants. I even noticed that my ailing red maple tree is coming back to life.
As Ruth Stout, the gardening gadfly, said long ago, “I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.” I agree, Ruth, so would I. And, maybe one day, one day in my 50+ years I will be a good enough gardener to greet spring in my own outdoor garden.
Judi
