You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
Several years ago a friend who is an interior decorator called me to ask a favor. One of her clients had ordered several hundred tulips, but was ill and unable to plant them. The woman's husband had no interest in gardening, so my friend asked if I'd help her client by planting her tulips.
I've always been an enthusiastic bulb gardener, so I agreed to meet the woman and give her a hand. Janie and her husband were both attorneys - he for a corporate law firm and she for the US Army Corps of Engineers. They had three daughters, age 15 - 23 at the time and they were redecorating their home, one room at a time.
As I worked planting the bulbs, I learned that Janie had contracted an autoimmune disease as a result of taking a weight-loss drug. She was on medication that was pumped into her heart by a device she had to wear 24/7, so while she was mobile, she was not in any condition to work in her garden.
The following spring Janie called me and asked me to come see her tulips in bloom - it was a sight, for she had, indeed, ordered a lot of bulbs. That summer she called me and asked if I would help her order bulbs and plant them in the fall. I did, and the following spring she had a riot of color in her garden.
When I didn't hear from her by late August that year, I called and left a message on their answering machine, offering to help plan and plant Janie's tulips. A few days later Janie's husband called to say that they were out of town - they had taken an apartment in St. Louis, so they could be close to a hospital where Janie was on the waiting list for lungs to replace hers that were diseased. They had been in Sr. Louis since late spring. He asked me to order and plant tulips - it would give Janie something to look forward to as she waited for her operation and recovered.
I ordered and planted the usual bulbs (Janie loved pastels, so there were lots of pink, lavender, apricot and creme colors) and two days before Thanksgiving, I got a call from Janie's husband, saying she'd received her new lungs, but that her body had been so stressed that she only lived a few hours after the operation.
The following spring Janie's spirit was alive in her garden as her tulips and daffodils brought cheer to all who saw them. That fall Janie's husband asked me to continue planting her bulbs as a tribute to Janie, so for the last three years, I've planned and planted three large beds of tulips in her 'memory garden'.
This thread has 8 replies. This forum is accessible only to subscribing members of Dave's Garden. There are many free features here, and about half of our forums are completely open to all members. Take a tour of our site and learn more about Dave's Garden, and explore the benefits of becoming a subscribing member.
