Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:44:47 -0400
From: jgglatt@gmail.com
To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [pbs] But My Sister Said

A number of years ago I was speaking at Ness Botanic Gardens. The
director told me this story.

He watched as an older woman was going around pulling up a little plant
here, another small plant there, and apparently having a grand time.

He walked over and asked to see in her purse. When she opened it up and
he saw all the plants crammed in there he began a restrained lecture
about how if people took plants like this there would soon be nothing
for anyone to enjoy.

Whereupon the woman looked at him and said "But my sister told me the
gardens are free."

Umm, yes, perhaps she meant the admission, madam.

Of course there is also the time I saw someone very furtively digging
Ranunculus ficaria at the New York Botanical Garden. I was going to warn
them about the plant's territorial ambitions but then decided that their
actions would bear a just reward.

'Nuff said. Let's go back to growing bulbs. Also corms, tubers, rhizomes.

Judy in splendidly sunny and wonderful New Jersey