It died! I killed it! Applied my purple thumb to my
bougainvillea and watched the big, flowering plant go down the drain. How could
I do this to my favorite plant, a mother’s day gift from my son, William? It was so beautiful I put a picture on
Facebook, so all my friends could see it. May, June, July, August and its dead,
gone forever. Bougainvilleas are hard to spell and supposedly easy to grow, but
I failed again. What did I do wrong?
One day I noticed the plant was missing. I surmised somebody
had come around to the little patio behind my house and pitched it in the
garbage. It was to that point.
I had a little memorial service for it, recalling the thick,
flaming red bougainvillea hedges that surrounded our house in Cuba , a spiny
fence no one could get through. I remembered the poinsettia trees (first time I
every saw a miniature one in a pot was when I came to the States), the mango
trees and the avocado trees right outside the kitchen, where the cook reached
out, grabbed a couple of avocados and made fresh guacamole. Banana trees wild
everywhere. Cut a green stalk and hang it in the pantry to turn yellow. Nobody
ever did anything to those plants. They just grew on their own, no watering, no
fertilizing, no nothing.
Yesterday morning I went for coffee on my patio and almost
fainted. There was my bougainvillea plant restored, full of green leaves and
red flowers! A miracle, like Lazarus revived from the dead.
Donna Wiginton Howes rescued my bougainvillea. She has the
proverbial green thumb. She kidnapped it, pruned it down to nothing, re-potted
it, and didn’t drown it. She gave me instructions. Water twice a week, half a
day in the sun and half a day in the shade, fertilize it (I already forgot how
often!) but I’m sure it was every once in a while. I’m looking at the size of
that pot and wondering how can I move it from shade to sun back and forth? So I
had a brilliant solution. I put the pot where the front side got sun and the
back side shade. That should do it. Now, if it doesn’t rain every day, maybe my
bougainvillea will survive.
Donna called with one last bit of advice. If the weather
dips into the 50’s be sure to put the plant under the carport for protection.
That bougainvillea is proving to be more trouble than my kids. I always left
them outside in the rain and the cold. I thought learning to cope with the
elements would toughen them up.
Katie Wainwright Author
Katiewainwright.com
Secuestro
The Azaleas
Pohainake Parish
 |
| Mother's Day gift! |
 |
| Dead Mother's Day gift!! |
 |
| Revived Mother's Day gift! |
No comments:
Post a Comment