A Time To Transplant

As I was reading the letter that described Nancy's Garden I remembered that in the trunk of my car was a pot and some soil that I was taking over to my mom's apartment. You see the house plant that I gave her on Mother's Day had grown too big for the original pot and needed to be transplanted into a larger and roomier one.

Transplanting a plant from one pot to another is not hard and unless you are a real klutz it's hard to do any damage to it. When one transplants plants that are growing in the dirt outdoors you must be careful that you do not do damage to the roots and that you also provide plenty of room for the roots to grow in it's new home.

As I was thinking of transplanting do's and don'ts's I was reminded of the process I'm going through as I get ready for a transplantation of me. I had tried to survive in conditions that weren't beneficial for proper growth. Instead of being nurtured I had been given too much manure which not only burned the leaves but almost killed the root system. I was crying to grow and produce what I thought I could given the proper nurturing but I had almost given up at finding the gardener who was willing to get a little dirt on her hands.

So now with God's help I see someone who might be willing to give me a chance to grow in her garden - so I prepare for a transplant. This all has to happen in its proper time - too soon or too late and it may mean that this plant will not take root properly and possibly die ("a time to plant and a time to uproot." Ecclesiastes 3:2)

The National Gardening Bureau picked violas as their flower of the year for 2007. Violas and pansies are such relied upon stalwarts that many gardeners take them for granted and think they know everything there is to know about them. True, violas are easy care plants. But in the gardening world, nothing stands still. Newer varieties of violas are being introduced with bolder colors and larger flowers that bloom longer. Even better, they exhibit better heat and cold tolerance than the remarkably hardy varieties where familiar with.

Viola is the name of a genus containing about 500 different species. Most of the violas cultivated in gardens are grown as annuals or short-lived perennials. However, many will self-seed and give you years of delight.