What Got You Here?
J.E. Shields (Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:02:25 PDT)
I've probably told this story before, but here is my tale:
As a kid of 9 or 10 years, I was only interested in butterflies and
moths. Plants were just food for Cecropia moth caterpillars, as far as I
was concerned. Then, in junior high school the family decided I was big
enough to push a lawn mower so I was appointed the family gardener. If my
father bought a few tulip bulbs, I was the one who planted them. When an
old lady gave us a bunch of cuttings from her shrub roses, I got to start
them under fruit jars.
In graduate school I was 2000 miles from home and happy not to have to mow
grass, trim shrubs, or plant flowers. Eventually, after a Swiss post-doc
stint and back in the USA with a new wife, I re-discovered flowers for our
garden apartment in Euclid, Ohio. Apparently about 6 years of vacation
from gardening mellowed me somewhat. I planted Narcissus bulbs, a few
tulips, and some bearded iris.
I actually still grow one of those irises, 'One Desire', 45 years
later. After moving to Indianapolis and buying a house, I retrieved some
Ostrich Ferns and a Moss Rose from my parents home, both of which I had
grown myself during my high school years. I still have plants of both the
fern and the rose here, about 60 years later.
I became interested in less hardy bulbs almost 40 years ago, starting with
Hippeastrum and branching out into other genera and other families. The
obsession is currently somewhat out of hand, with three home greenhouses
and one commercial greenhouse (2700 sq ft). This summer, we are
eliminating the commercial daylily beds. The bulb collection is going to
be slowly downsized in the next few years.
But I still have most of my butterfly collection.
Jim Shields
in very hot, very humid Westfield, Indiana
USA
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Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA