Winter care of plants
The window in front of my computer desk looks like the Gardens of Babylon! My wife and I looked in all the nursery outlets last spring for Pink Double Impatience and found none. The only one we could find was in the corner of an estate yard. The plants–commonly called sultanas–grow wild in Honduras but are in short supply here in Georgia. We, while out for our early morning walk, rustled a cutting from the in-ground plant, without permission, and rooted it during November, before the freeze came. When the temperature was to drop below freezing, I moved the plant into my window. I now have eight or ten rootings and plan to pass them to my neighbors, telling them, “Don’t let them die-out, just in case I need one back.” The blooms are so large, just like roses. If all survive, I’ll have lots to transplant in the spring.
Autum Plants
It is autumn where I live and while we still enjoy days of bright sunshine and pleasant temperatures, cool nights suggest that summer is over. Most trees at the lower elevations remain green but aspens on mountain sides now glow with golden leaves.
But if autumn indicates the end of the growing season, why are so many of my neighbors busily working in their gardens? With dirt-smeared hands and small shovels, they dig into soft earth and plant ball-like seeds called bulbs. What kind of crop can they possibly expect when it is very likely that we will have snow in a matter of weeks?
These gardeners know a secret: the bulbs they plant now need long weeks in what will soon be cold ground in order to produce the brilliant colors of tulips and daffodils and the heady perfume of hyacinths when spring arrives.
Do you ever grow weary with the process of Christian discipleship, with memorizing Bible verses, studying the precepts of scripture and other aspects of spiritual discipline? With the advent of the microwave, cell phone communication and the internet, we have become accustomed to much that is instant. Even in the spiritual realm, we frequently expect to see immediate and concrete results, or experience emotional reaction when God is busy planting bulbs so that – at the appropriate time – we will burst into bloom.
Thank you, Lord, for prescribing seasons, both in nature and in our lives. Thank you for the times of blooming but also for the colder days when I may not see results but know with confidence that you are producing growth
I have many pots of yard plants growing in my back yard, but was envious of the Sago Palms growing in yards and wanted one. I didn’t wish to buy one since they’re expensive. A friend checked with a brother-in-law in the nursery business and told me they grew from the roots of the mother plant. I knew they must have seed. A large protuberance sometimes grows in the core of the plant. I got one, chopped it up, and treated it as seed, to no avail. Again the nurseryman told me ”They just come up under the mother plant.”
I continued my search, looking in hundreds of plants, but seeing no seed. On our afternoon walk, on another than usual route, I spotted a Sago with seed in the middle. Viola, I purloined five seed by fighting off the pricks from the pointed leaves. I placed the seed in sprouting pots and forgot about them. Almost a year later, I found a Sago Palm growing in its pot. A friend called to say that one had sprouted in a pot I gave him. He’ll return it to me, so there’ll be a pair.
Sago Palms do grow from seed. I’ll check with the lady where I got the seed and see if I can get more.
tomvancel