Much loved are flowers in my yard that were never once bouquets from lovers, or cherished friends, or even from a funeral overflow. They had their first life in someone’s yard. Mostly they were dug up by the giver, placed gently in a brown paper bag, and handed to me as a sideways gift. Only one was ordered from a company and one that has multiplied was a starter stolen because it poked through the restraining fence. Let’s start with those. In the front right bed I am gradually building a clump of red amaryllis. A horticulturist’s step forward was to encase a bulb in wax, so it needed no vase or care. When the captive bulb has spent its life on a table near a sunny window, I just free it from the wax and relocate in a bed to restore its strength and allow it to multiply. One spring on a neighborhood walk, spires of bright blue salvia poked their square stocky steams toward the sidewalk. I broke several to make the parent even with the fence, bought the children home to put in dirt enriched with root starter and now have four stands in various places.
My mother raised a long row of daylilies: yellow, orange, and mixed blends , down the ditch that separated two houses. My sixth year of marriage I finally had a yard, received the paper bag offering and have three large cheerful groups on Swift sixty-three years later. Since I shared when I had an overflow, I also know other streets that are brightened by their offspring.
Along a side fence, though I can enjoy them from my kitchen window, are multiple peach cannas. Their arrival was convoluted. A friend’s mother from Oklahoma gave her some in a pot. When they needed dividing they were shared with another joint friend in Bellville who in desperation one spring mailed me a box, “Here, have some!” Those kept spreading and now until fall are glory in bloom.
Red, blue, sunrise yellow, peach and the last group is shout out loud white Easter lily trumpets. Truth be told, they were a pot gift for Easter lunch at least 15 years ago. To Rice yard and to Swift, again divided and planted in eye catching spots for a May exuberant show. Last fall I was negligent about seasonal care. In March I realized three pots were crowded with buds like people in an elevator. Now those pots are the eye-catching color of the back yard. I found I can have them as extravagant cut flowers on the dining room table. In about three weeks, I will clean out the pots. If you want some bulbs, I’ll do my best to transport, and maybe you too can be one who shares.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Matthew 5:28 – 29
Let Me Tell Ya 