Friday, May 26, 2023

Mayapple Triumph


 My very first mayapple flower! Such a thrill!


There's a long story that goes with this successful bloom ... about 5 years ago, at a local plant sale, I'd placed the last 2 mayapple seedlings into my cart, having made a BIG deal about my fixation on natives to the people selling the plants. I pulled my wagon along and then stopped to browse, leaving it briefly unattended, while I perused other plantings. When I turned back to drag my wagon, my mayapples were gone, and a woman was walking away with 2 in her hands. I told her she must have taken them from my cart and that they were mine, since I had made a 'scene' about picking up the last 2 off the stand just a few minutes ago. No she said, she hadn't got them off my wagon.

I remembered walking away, highly peeved because I had a solitary plant at home and had been on a mission to buy more so I could get them to propagate and spread. There was no way I could prove she'd taken 'mine' from my cart (even though there were now none on my wagon, and the vendors had been part of the conversation about taking the last 2 not so long ago!). It was infuriating, but I didn't want to make more of a scene than I already had, so left empty-handed. The plant sellers just kind of shrugged at me as if to say "sorry, but what can we do?"

So this mayapple blossom is a triumph! While I never found more to buy locally, the incident has been become part of my garden's lore. 

It has taken probably 5 years to produce two plants!

2 comments:

Lucy Schultz said...

This story still irritates me. She sucks!

Debbie said...

Me too. I thought the vendors would come forward and explain how they knew it was mine, but no ...