Part of my enthusiasm is pure randomness.  Sometimes I have to make up my own words to describe exactly what I mean when I talk about plants, gardens and even plant people.  I want to share two of my frequently used terms with you.

The first is “Catch”. 

Yep, I didn’t make that one up, but I did give it a new meaning.

 Let me use it in a sentence.  Go plant this flower in this pot and water it twice a day until it catches.  Or I’vebeen tending to this plant for two weeks and it still hasn’t caught.

Like fire all of the elements have to be in place for a plant to “catch” and it is a physical thing you can witness.  It is when a plant is no longer considered a weak transplant, because it has begun actively growing or at least acclimated to its home. 

The next one is even more abstract.

Plastic Eyes.

  Nope, not those googley things you buy at a craft store.  These are eyes belonging to actual people.  It refers to how they see things with their eyes. 

Plastic eyes are what develops when people are not exposed to nature often enough.  They begin to think that all plant material should look like either the front yards found on TV sitcoms, silk flowers, or the color beds outside the mall.  Their expectations have been raised so high that they can only find beauty in what looks artificial.  There is a cure!

Let me explain……

Have you ever seen a White Bud Tree?  It has delightful light green leaves in front of the most gorgeous black fruit on its branches.  The fruit looks like a dried butterbean pod that is jet black.  It makes a terrific contrast between the light bark and pale leaf.  The pod just hangs out there, in between the bark and leaves for the entire summer.  It is the White Bud’s best feature after its spring blooms.  I suggested one to a man the other day, and he said it was a lovely tree, but he would get tired of having to pick all of the black trash off of it all the time.   I told him he should not have this tree at all, and that the fruit was an attribute.  I told him exactly why I thought it was so beautiful and that it should be saved for someone who appreciated it.  This really through him for a loop.  I showed him Crape Myrtles, Japanese Magnolias, and Maples.  He said “You haven’t shown me anything that any of my neighbors don’t already have.  Can we look at that black fruit one again?” He came back to the same tree, but looked at it from a different perspective.  As I rung up his purchase he took a phone call.  I could hear him say “I got the prettiest little tree you have ever seen!  It does the coolest thing ever!  It grows black fruit!   No, I had never seen one do that either!  No, you can’t eat it.  No, that’s not right.  Just come over to the house this evening.  It will be the coolest thing you have ever seen!”  Plastic eyes can be melted; but only by the beauty of nature.