You also have a great Mother’s Day gardengirl, Grammy, and Diana.
LOL about your son, gardengirl. He was just pruning, his version of it, I am sure he meant no harm.
Last year another aunt, who is also elderly, gave me some honeysuckle (I know, you and Diana, this is bad stuff) and a wisteria. I planted them away from the other plants I value, and my hubby and grandson cut them down while mowing. Since we also had a drought last summer they didn’t come back, although I fretted about it and watered the place I planted them daily.
Well, those plants, gifts from my aunt, were gifts of love from this British relative, who shares with me often her pictures and stories about her family in England, and the beautiful gardens they grow in small spaces. Although some of the plants she buys me (and she is on SS and spending money for a plant for me is a BIG deal — a thank you for me taking her to a doctor’s appointment, etc.) are not those I would choose for myself, I understand how her effort is one of love for me.
So, she was planning on visiting me earlier this spring, and I agonized over her not seeing those gifts growing in my garden. So I went to WalMart and bought two more just like she bought me last year, planted them and waited for her visit.
I planted them, nurtured them. It was more for her than for me.
Last week, I caught hubby and my brother doing me a BIG favor landscaping. They had pulled up the wisteria (thought it was a weed). I quickly planted it again, and nursed it with a root stimulator. It was looking good, going to survive.
Then, a few days later, I go out and find a big landscaping board on top of it, it was bent over and distressed. I chewed them both out again (Don’t EVER pull up ANYTHING without consulting me first, and don’t lay lumber on top of my flowers)!!!!!
The poor plant, after some more nursing, is back alive again.
I may have to fight those plants someday, but they will be a special gift from my aunt Betty. I’ll keep ‘em pruned and controlled, and after my ashes are scattered among them and my other flowers, someone else can deal with them, never knowing how much I appreciated the special aunt who gave them to me.
Sheesh, we ought to be in the gardening thread!!!!
Hope you have a wonderful mother’s day with your mom girl. Unfortunately, my mom is now with Jesus (well, unfortunate for me... fortunate for her) so I will just get to enjoy my kids and g-kids. I took the g-kids to the local pottery place to paint a plate for my daughter. The only thing I insisted on was that they place a handprint on each plate. We will go pick them up tomorrow.
Your gardening sounds great... if sabotaged. I gave up on trying too hard. It never mattered how often I told them, the people who mowed the yard, whether a hired gun or Mr g, always manage to mow down my daffodils or my iris... depending on the season.
I managed to put a few hours in last weekend, but was only pruning dead stuff from the bushes that survived the late freeze last year. One butterfly bush died, the other is about 1/5 the size it was, but most of my Japanese maple made it, and the purple berry bush looks like it will live. My rhododendron has gone great guns for the first time!
In the meantime, the sugar roses are in no danger. 8-)
LOL about helpful sons and spouses! Last spring—he did me a favor by bushhogging a woodsy area for me. An area I had underplanted with a couple hundred dollars worth of Azaleas, trailing gardenias, and hydrangeas. I still haven’t said anything to him about that! Some of the plants were cuttings from friends.
I probably would have done the same thing you did about replanting the destroyed wisteria! Honeysuckle isn’t that bad here. Maybe it’s too hot. It’s blooming right now, and then it just sort of goes away.
Aunts are so special! My daddy is the 8th of 10 kids, so I had lots of aunts. I know what you mean about them doing stuff for you that they can’t afford. I hate taking stuff from people like that—that’s not why I helped out, but it’s way harder to accept help than give it, and it lets them feel not so useless.
good luck with your wisteria, and have a great day!