Tell Me Again Why I Do This???

The temperature is supposed to get below freezing suddenly tonight. We've had such great temps, until now. Down to 24 tonite! Just yesterday it was in the 70s!

I have an atrium that is not enclosed. I have most of my tropicals planted in the ground there. And today I had to hustle to wrap the atrium in plastic with winds about 30 mph and it's only about 45 or 50 degrees. It feels much colder with the wind. And of course the wind isn't helping me get this atrium wrapped.

So as I'm working, I keep saying, What fool would do this??? Why do I even bother with tropicals?? This is a LOT of work!

And of course, you know about this time next year, I'll be doing it all over again. LOL

What crazy rituals do you have that make you question your own sanity from time to time?

BC

This message was edited Nov 16, 2005 2:54 PM

The pond in the atrium

BC - that is why I have traded off anlmost everything tropical that cannot take the temps here, and I have played this year with my few remaining plants with parts outside to see (like my airplane plant) if they can take my temps with a good layer of mulch - so I will see if they can take the weather here if not they might all be on their way out too. After all 200 and some DL seeds need tended to in the house that will eat my winter time!

Mitch

Butterflychaser, you do this because your atrium is absolutely beautiful! And also, if you're anything like me, because you just don't know when to stop and you just can't help yourself!

I think you must do it so we can all have an imaginary cup of coffee and a chat sitting amungst your tropical beauties in the cold winter months. I know I just had a tranquil visit there sitting quietly in your chair admiring each and every plant indivually . Thanks for the hospitality! LOL Lou

Thanks, guys. It is a nice retreat in the winter. Y'all come over anytime. I make good hot chocolate! LOL

Do y'all go thru a lot of trouble for tropicals you store inside for the winter? I notice two of you are in zone 5. Do you grow tropicals?

BC

The only tropicals I manage to overwinter are hibiscus. I have eight of them in the house this year. I just can't resist them. Mostly, I try to go with hardy plants that look or smell tropical.
The temperature in your atrium should be helped by the pond. Water holds temps more steady than air and takes longer to change than air temp too.

Thank you. The hot chocolate was terrific, and the sound of the water in the pond most relaxing. Totally diverted me from the fact that we are into the 20's outside at this very moment! I think we go through the craziness for a few moments of sanity, if that makes any sense. The wild wind wrapping escapade will have been well worth it when you're drinking hot chocolate in there in December!

*All* of the gardening rituals we do sometimes seem crazy! Are there farmers or gardeners in your ancestry? That's what I blame it on. My parents and ancesteral families were all farmers, for as many gererations as I have gone back. There were some in Germany whose profession was "gardener." We don't know if they were someone's gardener or if their plot of land was small and called a garden. In fact my 3rd cousin, 4 times removed (I think) was Gregor Mendel who was a botanist who formulated the basic laws of heredity. His experiments with the breeding of garden peas led to the development of the science of genetics. It's in our genes! But what a wonderful thing to pass on from generation to generation.

My little 19 month old grandaughter loves for me to take her with me to work in the garden. She's an expert at watering all the plants (and her and me) with the hose barely turned on. Start weeding and she "weeds" everything in sight. Move a pot from one place to another and she moves every pot that she can carry to that spot. She loves the birds and butterflies (and is afraid of "bugs"). Maybe the second reason we do it is to share beauty, flowers, plants, seeds, vegetables with others. Thanks for sharing yours!

Nancy Ann, you know you're in good company here. The DG asylum-support group! I have tropical bulbs stored in every closet in the house! But until my body no longer lets me, I have no intention of stopping. As crazy as it seems sometimes, these gardening rituals are my grasp on sanity in a not so sane world. The beauty of every leaf and blossom lifts my spirits, and in every growing thing I feel the presence of the divine. As we nurture plants, they nurture our minds, bodies, and spirits it seems. How blessed we are to be so crazy!
Neal.

Last year I had so many tropicals outside I needed my front-end loader on my Kubota
to transport them back to the house to prep for winter. I'd purchased several dozen
canna's and had an ever increasing population of elephant ears and calla lilies. I got
most of them in - but left a calla lily planted by the pond. It survived the winter and
was spectacular this year! So I left a couple more plus some elephant ears out this
year. I think the natural spring is keeping them warm - it never quite freezes where the
spring flows.

Yep - crazy lady for sure. A friend gave me a "dedicated gardener lives here" sign and
my DH keeps telling me it should have read "Obsessive gardener..."

tam

It's like childbirth. We forget!