Flowers

Originally Written Between 2017-2020                                                         

I like flowers.  I appreciate flowers.  I give flowers.  I receive flowers.  I smell the flowers.  I decorate my home with flowers.  The only thing I DON’T do….. is grow flowers.

 

I had one role model who was great with growing flowers.  My grandma.  She had the original “green thumb.” One trait that, unfortunately, was not passed on to my mom or to me. It’s not like I haven’t tried.  Yes, I tried.  Many times.  But, obviously, I never tried hard enough.  Maybe I knew I could never measure up to my Grandma.

 

Grandma was an expert on roses, peonies, chrysanthemums, and geraniums – to name just a few.  She planted flowers so her gardens would flourish and look spectacular in the spring, summer and fall.  Winter?  Not so much.  She used her expertise in decorating with pine cones, garlands, cranberries, and other greenery to adorn the inside of their home during Christmas time.  And that was it for winter.

 

Grandma was always entering flower shows and won many ribbons for her arrangements.  I found a few of her ribbons when I put together a scrapbook for my uncle.

 

As I said earlier, grandma was particular good with geraniums.  At the end of every summer blooming season, she would place her potted geraniums in the basement of her house – to sort of “hibernate” during the winter.

 

Before grandma died, her prized potted geraniums were entrusted to my mom.  Every fall, those geraniums were lovingly placed in mom’s basement and brought out in the late spring to bloom again.  This went on for years and years.

 

Until my mom and dad moved to the bungalow by the lake.  A home that did not have a basement.  Mom needed to find someone who had a basement.  Guess who had a basement?  Yep!  Me.  

 

Mom said that all I had to do was place the pots in the basement and ignore them until spring.  That’s all that she did and every spring, the blooms popped out!  So…. I took the six pots, put them in the basement and not only ignored…. But completely FORGOT about them.

 

Sometime around June, my mom asked how the geraniums were doing.  Geraniums?  What geraniums?  Oh…. Grandma’s?  Well, I ran down to the basement and there they were.  Still hibernating; but, really not looking so good.  I showed my mom.  She didn’t know what to do.  We asked a couple of my mom’s friends who had “green thumbs” and evidently I was suppose to:

1.     Place the containers in a cool location with plenty of bright, direct sunlight.  Well, I had placed the pots in the cool basement but in the furnace room with no windows for sunlight.  

2.     The second thing was that I was supposed to water the plants when the soil begins to dry.  Obviously, since I never looked at them for seven months, they were pretty dry.

 

I have to admit that my heart was not into taking care of any geraniums.  Not even grandma’s geraniums.   Sorry grandma.