Yesterday was the annual bring the outdoors in game at my house. Because I am a total sap and cannot kill any living thing, I have ended up with a multitude of house plants. Seriously, I can't let things die, even if a stalk breaks off, I have to root it and make another plant. If you've been to my house you know this to be true. This creates tremendous upheaval in the Spring & Fall. Fall comes and we bring all these lush, humongous plants into the house. Winter becomes a game of survival of the fittest. Keeping the plants where they will get enough sun and remembering to water them is a chore. Which is fairly interesting, apparently I can't deliver a death blow but I don't mind slowly letting them suffer waiting to curl up and wilt...
By Spring it becomes a race to see if they will make it to the last frost or will I surreptitiously place them out with an admonition of "if you really want to live, the cold won't bother you!" Let the wind blow the dust off, water til you drown... ahhh, rejuvenation! Course, I think the other plants get jealous so the first warm day, everyone goes out... only to then be brought back in by my resentful husband who's glaring eyes are screaming I TOLD YOU SO because this is called the same thing happens every year. Every year I swear I will let them die, either they make it or they don't, it's God's will, not mine! And every Spring and Fall, just at the last minute, sometimes even at midnight, I relent and insist on going and bringing them in. Or at least covering them with blankets. Barry loves it.
In jeopardy right now is a huge Hibiscus. The Summer was not kind to my Hibiscus. It really needed transplanting but I couldn't find a pot big enough, I kept meaning to cut it back but it kept flowering and I can't possibly lose a flower so I never got around to it. Plants are smart. They know when they might be a goner so they go for broke. As a result, they get really leggy, they drop all their leaves and put all their energy into reproducing, hoping and praying that the seeds will live on, carry on the name so to speak, if only that evil gardener would stop deadheading and let the seed form... Life and death, right in my pruners. Ugh.
I am seriously considering cutting the hibiscus back and letting it live in my utility room. It's the only place that's left. When I think of February and my hunger for any color and warmth... and the vibrancy of that first brilliant red flower...
Barry's gonna be pissed.
PS. I'm having a half price sale on Good Luck Jade plants!!! Only 35 left!!!! Get yours now! Ai yi yi....
1 comment:
Ah yes, that wonderful fall plant game! As last night's frost descends on the city, the shivering Hibiscus recieves it's stay of execution just before midnight and will live to bloom, be leggy and occasionally moisture starved another winter indoors in the brilliant winter sun. It's brilliant red blooms will thank us in January!
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