Green Thumb

Years ago I roaming through The Bishop's Close with friends and we passed a small potting shed.  On the shelf sat several pots filled with various startings from some of the trees and shrubs that grow in this lovely, serene garden.  A dirty 'Mason Jar" sat next to the potted plants.  Each sickly looking 'start' had a plastic stick in the soil with the name of the plant and how much it cost.  They were cheap. 

The little 'nursery' was based on the honor system, if you took a plant you were expected to put the money for it into the jar.  I bought a couple of plants.  (Of course I always do.)

Most died within the first year.  (They always do.)

However, one struggled to survive, and year after year, I babied it along for two reasons.  First, I admired its will to live, and second it was an Indigo plant.  I had never seen an Indigo, and knew absolutely nothing about it.  Since I had such a bond with this particular plant I was determined it would and should live.  There was a lot of fertilizing and transplanting over the years and though it never has been a healthy plant it finally began to flower every year.  I was thrilled.  Eventually it got to be taller than I was, but it remained spindly, sickly and never really attractive, I simply had to do something to help this plant. 

I decided it was time to do some research.  So, last summer I drug out my gardening books and pamphlets and sat down to study.  The first thing I learned was Indigo is not a tree (which I've been trying to make it become), but a shrub. WELL NO WONDER THE POOR THING HAS BEEN CONFUSED ALL THESE YEARS.  It has been using all its energy trying to be something it isn't. 

At the moment the tree/shrub was in the middle of blooming season, so I thought it best not to shock it into suddenly becoming the shrub it was meant to be.  As a result, I allowed it to go through autumn and winter in the condition it was.  Then, this spring, I decided to try to make it a shrub.  I cut it back and shaped it up.  I learned in advance not to cut it back by more than a third and I was very careful not to do that.

So, day after day I make a trip to the patio looking at my Indigo Shrub hoping to see signs of buds forming.  There have been none...not a single one...I'm so depressed.   Sigh.  After all this time and tender loving care I fear I've finally killed it.  Sigh.

I think I'll keep it around for yet a little while, perhaps it's just a slow grower.  Or, maybe I'll have to come to terms it had a good life, but now it's time to move on.

Sigh.