5:40 p.m. | 2003-04-20 Gardening Mysteries. I have a spider plant at home. One that Eldest Sister gave me about 15 years ago. I don�t know long she had it before she gave it to me. Over the years, it�s done fairly well. It�s been moved around a lot, knocked over several times and neglected a little. But, it always manages to make some babies here and there. Last year, I plucked off a couple of the babies, potted them and took �em to work. Those babies have thrived at work. Apparently, they really like the environment at MyWorkPlace. (Go figure.) Not too long ago, both of them sprouted long stalks which promptly blossomed all over with white flowers. Okay, now that doesn�t sound like a big deal, but I�ve never had a spider plant blossom before. I quickly gathered all MyWorkPlace gardening buddies and drug them over to my desk to show them this little miracle. They were stunned too. I grilled each and every one of them and none of them had ever seen a spider plant blossom before. Of course, the blossoms are followed by baby spider plants so, apparently, my plants are giving birth to twentyuplets or so. I also looked it up in my great big Gardening Bible and it clearly states that they do produce white flowers. Who knew? Certainly not me. And there�s more. I have a several geraniums in my outside garden which I grew from cuttings. With those cuttings, I followed the advice of several long-time gardeners who told me to take a cutting off a plant, strip off all the leaves/blossoms and let it sit for several days before planting it. They said it might root faster if I put a rooting compound on it, and to only plant cuttings in the Spring. I followed that advice, except for the rooting compound part. For the cuttings that survived, it took them at least a year before they resembled a plant, another year before they were decent sized plants, and another year before they started blossoming. However, this past January, I had to trim one of them back because it�d become very �leggy�. I was going to throw out the cuttings when I thought �screw it� and shoved them in the ground. I didn�t strip them, I didn�t age them, I didn�t use rooting compound, and I didn�t plant them in Spring. In fact, I planted them in the middle of Winter. Well, lo and behold, those cuttings have already rooted, branched out and are blooming all over the place. It always seems to happen that way. When I follow the experts, my plants tend to struggle and/or die. When I do what I feel like doing, they thrive. So, I guess the lesson there is that I should stop listening to other people and do whatever the hell I feel like doing. Or, you know, something along those lines. While I was outside gardening today, I heard people yelling and screaming. It kind of startled me because, I never hear people arguing or even raising their voices in my �hood. Which, after I thought about it, is a little odd. But, apparently, either every one in my �hood gets along with each other very well, or they argue quietly. Anyway, at first I couldn�t figure out what they were saying, so I stopped gardening and listened closely. This is what I was hearing. Mind you, several people were yelling at the same time. �You are sooo cold. Oh, you�re getting warmer. Nope, getting cold again. Oh, warmer now. You�re getting so warm you�re almost HOT! Oh my god, you�re so HOT you�re burning up!!!� I couldn�t figure out what in the hell they were doing until I realized it was Easter and some little ones were outside hunting for Easter eggs while the adults egged them on. I know, I know. That was a very week pun. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend and/or Easter. your thoughts? seed flower