One woman writes:br...
Illustration
One woman writes:
All my life I've longed to have a green thumb. I enter people's homes and see the way their houseplants flourish and I turn green with envy. My longing to have beautiful houseplants is so great that I have bought and read many books on the subject. But nothing seems to help. Then one day I found a magazine article that told me that I didn't need to have a green thumb in order to get bulbs to flower indoors. "That's great!" I thought. "I'll grow bulbs to give to my family at Easter."
What followed was a flurry of activity. I bought the pots, bulbs, soil and fertilizer. I planted the bulbs according to the instructions I'd found in the magazine. My heart was set on growing spring bulbs to give to my family members as Easter gifts. In my head I could hear their exclamations of surprise and their words of thanks.
Once the bulbs were planted I began to wait. I waited past the time when I was supposed to see the green tips from the bulbs breaking through the soil. Then I waited some more. The weeks went by, but there was still no sign of growth. Easter came and went -- still no bulbs. Before I knew it, spring was here and those bulbs still hadn't grown. How had I managed to kill them? In a spurt of anger I threw those dead bulbs into the garden at the back of the house.
It was about two months later that our daughter came into the house. "Did you see the flowers in the back garden?" she asked. "There aren't any flowers back there," I responded. But she was right.
All my life I've longed to have a green thumb. I enter people's homes and see the way their houseplants flourish and I turn green with envy. My longing to have beautiful houseplants is so great that I have bought and read many books on the subject. But nothing seems to help. Then one day I found a magazine article that told me that I didn't need to have a green thumb in order to get bulbs to flower indoors. "That's great!" I thought. "I'll grow bulbs to give to my family at Easter."
What followed was a flurry of activity. I bought the pots, bulbs, soil and fertilizer. I planted the bulbs according to the instructions I'd found in the magazine. My heart was set on growing spring bulbs to give to my family members as Easter gifts. In my head I could hear their exclamations of surprise and their words of thanks.
Once the bulbs were planted I began to wait. I waited past the time when I was supposed to see the green tips from the bulbs breaking through the soil. Then I waited some more. The weeks went by, but there was still no sign of growth. Easter came and went -- still no bulbs. Before I knew it, spring was here and those bulbs still hadn't grown. How had I managed to kill them? In a spurt of anger I threw those dead bulbs into the garden at the back of the house.
It was about two months later that our daughter came into the house. "Did you see the flowers in the back garden?" she asked. "There aren't any flowers back there," I responded. But she was right.
