Green Thumb

My Mom had a green thumb.  I can remember vividly three plants she had.  The first one was a bird of paradise plant.  She grew it in a pot inside the house.  The leaves would curl up at the edges and had a tendency to split down the middle vein.  It was tempting for us kids to play with those leaves.  She seemed to have eyes in the back of her head when we reached for them.  This plant was  huge for our small living room, taking up at least a 3 square foot space.  Once I saw her repot it.  The thick root was beige and had spiraled down inside the pot to make more room for itself. She pulled it out of the pot and just about screamed because it looked like a big white snake.  In the summer she planted it in the garden and brought it back inside in the fall before the frost.  And in 1967 it bloomed.  How do I remember the year?  Because that was the year my parents took one of the two vacations without us kids along. They went to Expo 67 in Montreal.  And the bird of paradise chose that vacation time to bloom.  Oh, the irony. The two blooms were lovely.  My uncle came over to photograph the blooming bird of paradise.  By the time my parents returned the beauty had faded.  That summer the plant went back into the garden but never got brought into the house in the fall.  The second plant was an orange tree my Grandfather had planted from a seed inside an orange he bought at the store.  She cared for that tree and it grew as high as the ceiling in our dining room.  She pruned the top into a globe shape.  The leaves were dark green, waxy, and shiny.  Although the tree never flowered it was a very attractive plant. The orange tree grew too large and was brought to the farm where it got too cold and expired.  The third plant is the variegated ficus with a braided trunk in the picture.  This tree was tiny when she got it.  She fertilized it and cared for it until it too grew too large for her dining room.  Since I had a vaulted ceiling I agreed to take it.  She warned me that in the fall the leaves would drop and there would be a dustpan full every day.  She was right.  And the tree kept growing.  Eventually it needed a larger pot.  The larger pot made it too heavy for me to be moving in and out every year.  This tree is a shopping mall sized tree.  I asked for suggestions.  One friend suggested dropping it off at a nursing home with a note saying, "In memory of Mom."  Instead I brought it to work where a friend takes care of it.  The tree enjoys both north and east windows and seems to be thriving in environment.  Mom, she grew some big plants!