Plant Propagation ...

I am a gardener. I've been mocked by friends and family because I enjoy gardening so much I'll read whole books on one species of plant. (Ahem ... you mockers know who you are!) I like to plant things. I like to weed things (keep your comments to yourself, thank you very much). I like to shovel and hoe. I don't especially like the harvesting part of gardening. Nothing worse than picking beans, as far as I'm concerned.

What I like the most, I think, is propagating plants. It can be done by planting seeds, by starting cuttings, layering, division -- all of these things fascinate me. If I could just get someone to take care of the other details in my life for me, I'd specialize in it!

Here's an old-fashioned climbing rose grown from a piece "rescued" from an abandoned farm overgrown with weeds.

There's a pretty bush in my front yard that someone in another state passed along to me via my sister -- and asked for only a few comfrey plants in return. How cool is that?!?

Here are some daylilies just beginning to put on a show this morning, given to me by a friend who's neighbor had dug and tossed them.

I have a massive lilac bush and a mock orange in my yard that I started from a small clipping cut from yet another of those abandoned farm sites. Okay, the mock orange came from the front of the office building where I used to work -- just nipped off a small piece of a branch on my way out one evening. And that's not to mention the clumps of daffodils I've accumulated by digging just a couple from those old places, too.

The problem is, there are so many other things to be done around here that I run out of time before I run out of good ideas. I need a crew of workers to help. Guess I'll have to take a ride to the city and find some of those people who hold up signs that say, "Will Work for Food." Yeah, right!