Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Patience and my hydrangea...

I've had a hydrangea plant for ages; older than my gal in term of years. And it never flowered all these years.... till now! A couple of years ago, Mom decided to replant it for me and suddenly I had 1 plant split into 2 pots. I had almost wanted to be rid of them cos they never did flower in the years that I've had them.
Hydrangea
This plant is the remnant of the days when I was plant crazy. My whole compound had all sorts of pots... all kinds of plants; annuals and perennials. I even bought myself an encyclopedia of plants. It remains today the biggest and heaviest book in my house.

I learned up as much as I could about plants, even tried planting those 'temperate' plants. Was crazy enough to get my sis who was in the UK then to send back some bulbs. Some did grow... poorly, some thrived but mostly just didn't make it.

Saturdays would be spent pot and plant hunting at the nurseries. I learned to identify flowers by name, often painstakingly flipping through my encyclopedia; Google was not a rave back then. LOL! And I was mad about roses. I bought books on roses too. Would go to Penang and check out the bookstores for plant books! Bought so many of plants too but most didn't survive beyond the first year... Today, only one rose plant is left at my pagar.

But recently, my 'gardening bug' is back, albeit a smaller scale. I spent the weekend with Other Half and Daughter repotting and redoing our little pond filtration system. We've decided to do away with the conventional sponge filter. I've gotten tired of washing our homemade filter every fortnightly. I am going for plants hoping that I only need to trim them once a couple of months... and who knows, if it works, maybe I'll even try hydroponic... my fish can supply all the nutrients for the plants. 8)
Plant Filter
We actually have a natural one going for years in this little pot of 'pegaga-like' plant and bamboo and they're good at removing the nitrates in the water. And we're doing another one to replace the conventional filter that we had in place.

So in phases we live our lives, in cycles they revisit us sometimes... back to gardening for the time being.... 8) And oh yes! I'm glad I didn't throw the hydrangea plant away... I am recently reminded that a little (or maybe a lot) patience means hope is kept alive. Where there is hope, there are still possibilities....

5 comments:

Thomas C B Chua said...

U r right! However at my age I cannot afford the time to grow them from seeds even though I have the patience, so I purchase bigger plants, LOL

PreciousPearl said...

wakaka! very good of u to have quite so much patience to do gardening. I never do gardening anymore - i just end up killing plants!

monay said...

We have recently caught the gardening bug too... with spring in the air...:)
No hydrangea, but primroses and pansies. My kalanchoes and easter lilies never fail to bloom year after year, despite less than tender loving care. They are hardy!
Recent additions the past week were cybidnium and venus flytrap :)

monay said...

oops cymbidium...

AJ7 said...

Thomas: Big or small, they're still plants! 8)
PP : You'll never know... your fingers might go green. Ha! Ha!
Monay : Venus Flytrap? That's an interesting one! I know of one who collects them.

Gardening can be therapeutic... as in so many past times. Other Half just downloaded a book on hydroponics... we might be going for that. Plant our own edible greens. 8)

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