Tuesday, September 09, 2008, 06:05
The Cemetery Pot Comes Home
I brought my cemetery pot home Sunday. The Dusty Miller has a yellow bloom on it. Sort of looks like that stuff that grows at the edge of the lawn in sandy soil that my pony, Dusty, used to love to eat, the stuff that has a spicy smell when you mow it — the stuff that is extremely drought resistant and that gets a little yellow "pea" on it of a flower, a little yellow button of a bloom.
I did not know Dusty Miller got flowers on it, to tell you the truth. But the Dusty Miller in the cemetery pot is blooming. We have had so little rain this summer, I am surprised anything is still alive in the cemetery pot.
The cream-and-white trailing ivy is alive yet in the cemetery pot, too. It has grown longer and looks quite well, all things considered. And if I remembered to water the pot once a month, the pot was lucky!
Bringing home the cemetery pot makes me feel a little hollow inside, makes me feel a little sad. Bringing home the cemetery pot to put it in the basement means summer is finished. I have not put the pot in the basement yet, though. It is sitting outside by the back porch. I am going to water it thoroughly and let it all soak in. The pot drains from the bottom, and I want it to completely soak up as much water as it can before I put it in the basement. It will be too difficult to water it thoroughly in the basement unless I find a bucket big enough to put it into.
I don't know why I persist in bringing the pot home before it freezes hard. I don't know why I persist in putting it in the basement over winter and resurrecting it again for the next spring. Why don't I just pull everything out and start all over again with new, fresh plants the next time around?
Starting over again, discarding the plants, seems wasteful for one thing. My mother would hate that. She would dislike it very much if I were "wasting" perfectly good plants.
For another thing, the continuity of the same plants is comforting. They go dormant over winter. But they survive over winter in the basement where it is warm enough to keep them from dying but cool enough to allow them go dormant. In the spring, when the weather warms up again, I set the pot outside to let the plants get used to the weather again. I trim them back some. And then the plants start to grow.
Saving the plants from year to year makes me feel there is a promise of the spring to come during the long, cold winter that I know will be coming first. Saving the plants represents a certain optimism about life and spring and rebirth and resurrection.
LeAnn R. Ralph
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Sunday, September 07, 2008, 22:11
Easter In September
My Easter lilies are blooming. I got two Easter lilies for church in memory of family members last Easter. Then I brought the Easter lilies home and planted them in the flower bed/tomato bed down by the basement.
It's interesting to watch the Easter lilies. The plants die back from what was there and then new sprouts start coming up from the bottom. The sprouts grow and grow, until finally, they put out buds. The buds develop fully -- and then they bloom.
A Master Gardener from our church says they will bloom for a couple of years if you plant them outside. I wouldn't know that from personal experience, though.
A couple of years ago, I planted my Easter lily outside. The plant dutifully died back. Got new sprouts. Got a bud. And the Easter lily bloomed.
Unfortunately, at about the time the flower appeared, a gopher started digging in the flower bed. My Easter lily disappeared. And that was the last I saw of it.
So far the gophers have stayed out of the flower bed where I planted the Easter lilies this year.
And I hope they stay out!
Our barn kitty, Little Sister, is still working on catching pocket gophers. So maybe that will help. I think she's up to seven or eight that she's caught this summer -- as far as I know.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Click here to order The Rural Route 2 Cookbook.
Free shipping on all books ordered from LeAnn.
If you're tired of "cheap junk from China" all of my books are “Made in the U.S.A.”
Written in Wisconsin. Printed in the United States of America.
Autographed books make great gifts!