My First Orchid |
|
 |
| Thursday June 8, 2000. |
|
| |
For the last two years I have purchased plants from my local neighbourhood horticultural society annual plant sale. Last year I had a lot of time to browse and chat up the "experts" that were on hand. I inquired of a very friendly gentleman, about a plant without a label that I had never seen before. He said it was a poppy. I love poppies and it wasn't like any I had seen before so I purchased it.
That year it grew to be quite expansive but the flowers really did not look like poppy flowers, at all. I couldn't remember what it was called for the life of me. But it looked kind of neat so I forgot about it.
Well this year it came back with a vengence. At first I thought it had just seeded itself like mad. However, when I was out digging up the garden on May 23, I discovered that it was propogating by runners. And those runners were running like they were going for the gold, spreading all over the garden. I hate ripping out plants. It's like senseless killing to me. Somehow I managed to throw a bunch out and only keep a few in pots to give away to my mythological "gardening friends". These are the people I pretend I will give my extra plants to who don't actually exist. With the exception of Beate who I dump cast-offs on every time she visits.
Within a few weeks those plants had grown. I mean they are huge. The leaves are incredibly large and the plants are everywhere, invading everything. They are beautiful but some of them have to go. Showdown number two is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.
Today I went to a garden centre with my brother. Well what did I find in the sun perennials section but the "Plume Poppy" (Macleaya cordata), aka the not so poppy, poppy plant. I considered stealing the tag from the pot, but stealing is wrong so I wrote the name down instead.
It turns out this plant isn't a poppy in the traditional sense at all. It has the word poppy in it's name but it isn't a poppy. Worse still, it is an invasive plant considered to be a Rank 3. "LESSER THREAT" plant according to the Research Committee of the Tennessee Exotic Pest Plant Council I don't live in Tennessee but it all sounds very threatening and menacing non-the-less. Somehow in my naivete I have managed to introduce two invasive plants into my garden. First the Mint and now the Plume Poppy. Plus you can guess who was the eventual recipient of the potted plants that I just couldn't destroy. You've been warned.
| | |
|
| Thursday June 1, 2000. |
|
| |
Every year it's the same thing. "My garden will kick ass this year", I say. "I will put more work into it this year", I say. It doesn't happen and it's always for the same reason. My garden is on the side of my building, on the corner of a major city street, around the corner from a beer store and a liquor store and a major highway. Traffic is heavy in these parts. The trouble is I hate being on public display while I bend over to pick weeds, or dig dirt, or prune plants. It's not just the people in cars who stare and honk. It's the people who stop and stare but don't say anything. Or the ones who bring their dogs by to "do their business" and then walk off without picking it up like it's no big deal. Or the guy next door, who walks by with his little dog, sticking his nose up in the air and glaring at me sideways simultaneously. He's the host of a local garden show by-the-way. A very pretentious one at that.
I sound like a whiny baby talking this way. Tears. I'm lucky enough to even have this little patch of dirt to muck about in. It's this thinking that causes me to suffer the embarrassment of being a person with a gardening website and a faultering garden. Yesterday Wing Chunasked me where my garden was when we pulled up in the parking lot after an enjoyable lunch out. The garden was barely visible behind tall weeds and uncut grass. There goes that green thumb/gardening authority image I'd been cultivating.
It's not entirely my fault that things fall to the wayside. Despite what Beate says in her journal about pee acting as a fertilizer, my experience is that it burns the leaves of plants and practically kills them. And my garden is no stranger to urine, dog or human. Mind you this urine is straight from the body of a dog or human. Not diluted by water as Beate suggests. Anyways, all I know is I have to stop being so shy. This year I will toughen up and fight this defeatest attitude and get out there more often. I swear.
| | |
|
|
