Saturday, June 18, 2011

Growing?!

I swear. I totally do NOT understand green growing things. Don't get me wrong, I really like plants. I like to watch them grow and flower and especially to see them leaf out again in the Spring and put on new growth. I even like to try and grow things, but why they grow or don't grow seems to have absolutely nothing to do with anything I may try in my attempts to grow them. How did my sisters end up with such green thumbs while mine is positively black? It's a mystery.

What am I ranting about? Well, I'm just puzzled and amazed by things growing and not growing around here. Two cases in point:

Peach seedlings: On March 20th I rescued two tiny peech seedlings from my lawn rather than mow over them. I planted them in side by side pots using the same potting soil, etc. They were approximately the same size, as you can kind of see from the picture to the left, about 3 inches tall maybe. Now, check them out in the picture to the right. Three months later, one is still about 3 inches tall and the other one is over a foot tall! I've treated them both exactly the same. They get watered at the same time. I spray them both with insecticide for flowering and fruiting plants, at the same time. They get the same light and temperature. The only difference is one is in a ceramic pot and one is in a plastic pot. Really? Is that what makes the difference? I just don't know. I have another ceramic pot, so I suppose I could shift the little one over and see if it helps. I'm actually considering transplanting the bigger little tree out into the yard, but I'm a little afraid just my transplanting it will kill it. Maybe I'll wait until it's a little larger. Or until I see if the other one will survive, in case I need to try again.

Holly tree/bush: On April 2nd my friend and I planted baby dogwoods and a little holly stem in the back yard. I call it a holly stem because I don't know if it's supposed to be a tree or a bush. Anyway, as you can see in the picture to the left, the holly started out looking and doing fantastically well. But over the last two and a half months, despite everything I've tried, and all my tender-loving care, the holly has looked progressively worse and worse. The leaves finally started to blacken and curl up and crumble away. It didn't look as though anything was munching down on them, they mostly looked like they were burned. Black spots that got larger and larger until the leaf curled up and dropped off. So a couple of days ago I had just the stem and a couple twigs left. I figured I'd leave it and next Spring I'd mow it down if it was still being a stem there. Today when I was mowing the lawn, I discovered that there are new small leaves sprouting from the end of the three little branches!!!! I'm not kidding. You can see in this picture to the right. I have no idea! It just began putting out new leaves.

See what I mean? Growing things are a complete mystery to me. Basically I think it's safe to say that anything that grows around here does so despite my efforts, rather than because of them. I think I'll stay away from the little holly, other than to make sure it gets water when that area gets dry. Maybe it will stand a chance that way.

And yes, despite everything, there are still signs of life from the little dogwoods. *shakes head* Quite amazing.

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