Write-Minded Woman
  • My Pith
  • About Me
  • What I Read

Faux Green Thumbs

7/28/2014

5 Comments

 
Special note: My 365-Day challenge is finished successfully, ahead of schedule! Click to read about outcome.
Picture
I admire people who have green thumbs. I don't.

It's not unusual for people where I live to put fake flowers -the flora equivalent of plastic pink flamingos- in their window boxes and yards. The practice both amuses and repels me. Many of my senior and snowbird neighbors have neither the energy nor the opportunities to cultivate and maintain flowered borders and beds, but they seem to crave the visual interest flowers give to a home's exterior. Perhaps they grew up with colorful yards; maybe they tended flower beds themselves in their younger days; possibly they just want flowers around their homes and subscribe to the plant-once-and-be-done home decorating philosophy. Whatever motivates them to do it, the result is the same: eye-catching color that delights for the briefest instant before disappointing.

If people are going to put faux flowers in their yards, I suggest that they be blatantly fake. For example, a dear friend who has a lakeside camp that is heavily sheltered by trees "planted" a flower garden consisting of fabric polka-dotted blooms surrounded by rocks and naturally growing greens. It works because they are what they are; they don't pretend to be real. There's something to be said about authentic fakery - at least where flowers are concerned.            

Having no discernible talent for growing anything green, with or without flowers, I've resorted to snapping pictures of blooms and buying fresh bouquets at the local grocery store. I sigh over floral fabrics, paintings, and photographs. But my inner being longs to be able to GROW some flowers, and so far, that doesn't seem likely to happen.

So, I'm taking a cue from my friend with the camp, and indulging in floral fakery. My first investment is a minimalistic 4" high wooden tulip, with a painted lavender bloom perched on a painted green stem flanked by painted green leaves. It's small. It's subtle. It's a start.


Picture
5 Comments
cmk
7/29/2014 09:16:33 am

Through the years, I planted my gardens and tended them for 'most' of the summer. ;) I was pretty good at growing things, also. For example, I had a wonderful mum garden that I loved--some of the plants were 'clearance' plants that I nursed back to health and had come back annually, bigger and better each year. Then one year I decided that I REALLY hated weeding, so I put down Preen (a weed killer/preventer). The following spring, I found that I had killed most of my mums (oops) and pretty much lost interest in gardening. There are times when I still want to garden, but only in the spring--I don't want to do any maintenance anymore. When I want flowers these days, I buy a bouquet from the florist or Walmart/grocery store. :)

Reply
Natine
7/29/2014 10:58:07 am

How fun that yours is my first comment on this, CMK! Guess you've already figured my live blooms come from the grocer also. I am playing with potted herb garden this summer. So far I've had great luck with basil and parsley (although am battling caterpillars for the flatleaf) and rosemary and mint. Not so good with cilantro and lavender; apparently they are TOUCHY.

Live or die is my gardening philosophy! ;-)

Reply
cmk
7/30/2014 06:42:51 am

I tried growing some herbs late last year, but they didn't last--I waited too long into the season to buy the plants. I decided not to try again--I've become far too lazy to do more than find what I want in the stores. ;)

Shel Harrington link
7/29/2014 12:10:30 pm

I love those polka-dot flowers! I'm with you on the fakes - unless they are over-the-top fakes, you're setting someone up for disappointment - just wrong. In an attempt to get around my own less-than-green thumb, I bought a book on painting rocks to look like plants and flowers and then painted one. Apparently you need more than one to make a flower bed look full. My next fake-out was giant, brightly painted, metal flowers that have been 'planted' in a back bed. They were the only 'blooms' that survived winter!

Reply
Natine
7/30/2014 06:59:45 am

So how can I not laugh at that, Shel!!?? Guess our green genes came from Mom's side... :-)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    WMW Soul Searching

    Archives

    January 2021
    May 2020
    April 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    December 2018
    July 2018
    January 2018
    July 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    August 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    August 2014
    July 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013