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Gardening With Dora
Take for example the truism that tells us if we talk to our plants they will prosper. If we think this through we realize that plants don't yearn for human companionship and scintillating conversation. They just want water and food and adequate light. In order for an axiom to survive there must be a kernel of truth. Perhaps the reason this appears to be true is the fact that anyone interested enough in a plant to talk to it also notices that it isn't looking so healthy and maybe needs more water or less water or fertilizer...or something. There is also a belief that a dogwood tree that isn't blooming can be beaten into submission with a few well-placed whacks against its trunk with a heavy object. People actually do this and it probably does work. Plants that "think" they are going to die will hurry on with the business of blooming and producing seed in order to insure the survival of the species. I have a redbud that is putting on blooms now because it is stressed from the drought and thinks its end is near. (I wouldn't care if it did die.) Some potted plants will not bloom unless they are root bound. A spider plant needs overcrowded roots to produce the little new plants that hang off the sides. There is universal belief that some people were born with a green thumb. I don't know, but I don't think there is a genetic disposition toward the ability to grow plants successfully. I think it has to do with interest and focus. To illustrate-I was coming out of a restaurant in downtown Winder one day and the friend with me said of the container plant by the door, "That needs water." Walk anyone who says they don't have a green thumb by that same plant all day long and they would never notice its wilted condition. I love the bumper sticker that says, "Never go to a doctor whose plants are dying." Maybe we can just believe that he or she is too busy setting bones and treating the common cold to worry about his office décor? Dora Garrick Fleming is a Clarke County native living and gardening in Winder, Ga.
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