i iz dum (part 398)

[muckefuck]

My poor Meyer lemon, which I bought for last Chinese New Year, has been struggling ever since. I'd had it only a few weeks before I forgot to water it once or twice, causing the blossoms to wither and the green fruits to fall. I redoubled my efforts and it staged a spectacular recovery only to be thwarted again by my forgetfulness; a third attempt was not in the cards.

I fretted. I asked my father for advice, but he didn't have much to say about citrus. monshu thought it might be suffering by being too close to the cold glass, even though it was sitting atop the radiator. By the beginning of the year, it was looking so sad that I considered pruning down the bare branches.

But before I could get around to that (there was a lot I was planning to do at the beginning of the year that I never got around to), it returned from the dead: Branches which hadn't held leaves in months were suddenly budding all over. By about three weeks ago, flower buds appeared. I told monshu that perhaps it was a seasonal effect: The light was telling it that spring was back.

You can bet I've been fanatically about caring for it. I've been checking the soil almost every day and drenching it the moment it dries out to the one-inch mark. The first blossom opened yesterday and I've been by to sniff it at least three times--really a remarkable fragrance for a life-long temperate zoner like myself.

As I was watering yesterday, something occurred to me: For the first few months, not only was I more attentive about watering, but I was also reliably fertilising. Then I got lazy; when the second batch of MiracleGrow ran out, I didn't mix up more. Not until a month ago, that is. A month ago...hmm...just about the time I noticed a remarkable recovery?

That's why I am dumb.

Comments

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

You realise miracle gro is Crack for Plants.

[grahamwest.livejournal.com]

Do they need to go to the Betty Frond Clinic?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

As long as the DEA doesn't raid my kitchen or try to shut down my dealer, I don't see that this is a problem for me. Give me the artificially happy blooms over naturally depressing lost leaves any day.

[(Anonymous)]

:: laughs at the thought of you trying to find inconspicuous places to stick a needle in your plant so as to hide the track marks ::

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

DAMN IT! That was me ... -_-

Trials of our lemon tree.

[currawong.livejournal.com]

Lemons love it here .. but the grasshoppers love the lemons ...if I dont spray every day with a garlic/tobacco spray, they strip the young tree to a skeleton.

[danbearnyc.livejournal.com]

I'm not a happy citrus person. Every variety I've had in my apartment has been decidedly unhappy and has not lasted more than a few months. Oddly, I usen't to be able to kill the things. My home on Long Island had several dwarf orange trees we used to form a border across the back fence. They always produced mini fruit which was too bitter to eat, but they also grew some seriously nasty spikes which served to keep local kids from hopping the fence and running through our backyard.

Eventually there came a time to prune them back and dig them out, but the damned trees would not die. Eventually I wound up cutting them down and leaving stubble for the new people who bought the house to deal with.

Do you know the happy vendors at Edible Landscaping btw?

[sacundim.livejournal.com]

A "lemon" that is neither (a) a lemon nor (b) green. I like it already...