Befriending Plants

This orchid is like the friend your Mom sent a Christmas card to every year, for years and years, but never called or visited...
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I get one or two flowers a year from the orchid, pausing to enjoy the delicate scent and to take a photo.  Then the orchid, a jumble of battered, spotted, brownish leaves set at odd angles, returns to an out-of-sight-out-of-mind location for another year.
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Our relationships with plants can be complicated.  I can't be the only one who has plants received as gifts which provide no beauty and no joy--but they were gifts, thoughtful gifts, so there they grow, though neither I nor the plants are happy. 
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Then there are the seedlings which appear.  They are like the relatives of people you love, for whom you can't quite build affection.  There they are in your garden, somewhat like the loved one, but not enough to make them lovable.
A seedling of a Hippeastrum I love, that I don't love.
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 Then there is love at first sight.
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The plants who are like people you work with--they are mostly helpful; you wish them well, and the day after quitting that job, you can't remember the first thing about them. 
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There's that love at first sight thing again.  My, aren't we fickle!
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The plants who are like relatives.  You love them, but they are a little odd. 
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The plants who love you much more than you love them.
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The utterly reliable and ever faithful, and uncomplaining, that you neglect a bit, because...
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It's that love-at-first-sight thing, all over again.
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Comments

  1. Yes indeed, some plants are like best friends other plants less good friends and some I don't like at all.

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    Replies
    1. Isn't it strange how that works? What do people who don't like plants do?

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  2. A lovely post and beautiful flowers dear Hoover. I have many plants which were given to me by family and friends, some still here, others have passed...the plants are lovely reminders of my Mum, Dad and friends.
    xoxoxo ♡

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it is beautiful to have those daily reminders of loved ones, isn't it?

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  3. Then there are the plants that remind you of the close friends of youth with whom you did things that were a lot of fun but not too wise in retrospect.

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  4. This is a wonderful post. And it feels so appropriate for this Hallmark holiday weekend (yes, I'm a Mother's Day Grinch). There is just something about a plant that makes it completely different from that compote dish you were gifted with for "x" occasion. Is it the fact that it is a living thing?

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    Replies
    1. Mothers Day Grinch, good for you!

      Those who remember plants are indeed living things, not decorator items--are to be honored.

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  5. My son just gave me 4 orchid plants. I've never had orchids before, and now I will think of him every time I see one.

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  6. Stunning photos. Love the Romneya image, I've wanted to grow them here for some time now.
    I love the stories and attachments we have with our plants, makes the whole gardening experience so much fun doesn't it!

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    Replies
    1. Here Romneya can be quite a thug, but the flowers are so very photogenic.

      All the attachments and emotions makes it more complicated, certainly!

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