Mar 25, 2005 11:40
I'm excited. I have a really old Zygocactus (holiday cactus) that's blooming again. I'd rescued it from my sister's house a few years back (Sally has a black thumb) and repotted it. Zygocactus like to be rootbound, so it pouted for a few years and didn't give me more than two blooms most seasons. Right how, it's got six shocking pink blossoms open and another thirty or so buds. It's been long enough since it's bloomed that I'd almost forgotten what color its blossoms are.
Normally I'd not care so much for a houseplant, but this particular plant comes from sixty-year-old stock. My sister had gotten it from our great-aunt, who had received the parent plant as a Christmas gift from her first boss in the early 1940s. The parent plant is dead, and the only other offspring (my mom's) died this winter. Once it finishes blooming, I need to propagate a few cuttings for her.
Best of all, I'll have a garden this spring. Ethan's grandparents gave us permission to garden in their backyard this year. I'm beginning to plot what I want to plant, and how much...tomatoes, spinach, swiss chard, onions, some beets perhaps. We've got garlic already started in a pot, almost ready to transplant. It's almost irrational how much I'm looking forward to having a garden again; there's a wonderful restful quality to it I'm excited to indulge in again. Yeah, it's work, but it's fun work.
garden