Do you have a sentimental plant? Or Plants? I have several.
I have the Hosta that I brought part of with me from our last house because my father gave it to me 10 years ago, and it’s rare and I’ve never seen another one like it. It looks like the witch's chin in Hansel and Gretel.
I have the Hosta my friends Bob and Michelle brought to my last garden one Sunday afternoon. I only have a chunk of that one too. Blue and Green. Absolutely beautiful.
But the most sentimental plant I own, is also the oldest.
It is a Hoya Carnabas, and it was given to my mother by my brother’s friend John about 40 years ago we figure. When John was around 14 years old.
It is associated with my mother, and my mother's garden and her sprawling property. Every Summer it comes outside and hangs in the shade of a very old trees, and bursts into bloom. I don’t mean one bloom, I mean HUNDREDS. Every year my mother reminds me that it came from John, and then we think about John for a moment.
When we moved here, my mother gave it to me. I didn’t have a clue what to do with it, so I nearly killed it. Horrified, I started studying, and talking Hoya to people who had beautiful ones in their homes (Thank you Annie), and thankfully I saved it.
Predating this near death experience was one fatal moment, when I did, in fact, kill the most glorious cactus that my mother parted with when we moved into our last house. It was around 40 years old.
It had two branches off the main branch and our neighbour Cathy said that when she drove by our house, and looked into our living room - where it sat to get blazing sun - it looked like the cactus was giving everyone the finger. Or she thought perhaps my mother gave it to me as a gesture to her son in law. Who knows? It was a great story and a sentimental plant.
Clears throat and continues.
I saved the Hoya. It is looking fantastic now. It sits in this absolutely incredible vintage macramé light and planter that was made by a family relation who also made the pottery bowl, the shade and beads. The macramé is from the 80’s. 40 years old. One of a kind.
Do you have a sentimental plant?
Sentimental plants don’t even have to be your favorite plant or look. In the case of sentimental plants, sentimentality trumps above all else as a justifiable raison d’être.
For some of us, they are just plants, for others of us, they are a connection to the past - and hopefully the future - that we are the current caretakers of, and a way to keep distant friends and family close in mind and heart.
Happy Valentines Day.
~ heidi