Welcome to A Garden Variety Blog!

Although my neighbors are all barbarians,
And you, you are a thousand miles away,
There are always two cups on my table.
--Tang Dynasty


I hope you, whomever you are,
will sit down "with" me for tea,
or flavored coffee or spiced cider,
and have a garden variety chat.
Now and then.
I am not so consistant about blogging
as I ought to be.
I *am* consistant about
drinking hot beverage
and the coffee/tea is always on the hob.

Come on in!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Forcing Spring

Well it did seem for awhile like the only way we were going to get Spring is by forcing it! LOL! We still may get some snow, but I have enjoyed a month of lovely Spring bloom, thanks to my neighbor's prunings. The branches from her Magnolia tree just recently finished blooming but failed to take root. The forsythia is still bright and sunshiny on top of my refrigerator (the only place I was sure it wouldn't get knocked over). I was thrilled today to see tiny white roots in the vase! The best part about forcing forsythia is that I get to enjoy it twice, since I took those cuttings from my own bush and when their forced bloom is gone, the bush will just be beginning to bloom.

Right now I have a vase of Larch clippings, again a gift from my neighbor. When I got them they looked like dead branches with little cone shaped bumps all over them.





Now they look like this.



Or in close up.....

Bach's flower remedies list Larch as the remedy for people who feel that they are not as good as others and that they are bound to fail. They lack confidence in their ability to succeed and so often do not even bother trying. The remedy helps people in this state to go ahead regardless of thoughts of success and failure. More able to take risks and be involved in life, they get more out of living.
Well, I can see that since it "bloomed" so easily with no real work on my part! Just succeeding so quickly and easily to "get" it to bloom is a real confidence booster! I sure hope to see little white roots on this bunch of cuttings!