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Show , Sorry, Charlie . . . you're too big ; By MARCELLA WALKER You are not going to believe this. For Mother's Day we got each of our mothers a hanging basket of potted plants for their front porch or patio. Jer's mom's has done really well and has looked nice all summer on her front porch. My mom put her's on the patio. In June they took a two-week two-week trip to Alaska and her next door neighbor was to watch it but he forgot. The poor thing died. So Mom went and bought a Creeping Charlie to put in the basket. Now, to understand this you must first know that my mother has a very green thumb and everything grows at her beck and call. So, as per usual, the plant thrived. For one reason or another I had not been out to her patio this past summer and I did not know that all this was transpiring until Wednesday. Wed-nesday. That day she and my stepfather came down for a visit and unloaded out of the back of their station wagon this humongous Creeping Charlie. My mom cannot bear for anything to die but neither does she have room in her home for a plant of this proportion. Therefore, she brings it to me so that if I kill it, it will not be on her conscience. A few years ago I did a story on a Creeping Charlie that Colleen Larsen had grown from a pup. It was the biggest plant, other than a tree, that I had ever seen. Well, guess what, Colleen? This Charlie is not as big as Colleen's but it the biggest plant I p.g. blab I f 5 ? have ever had in my house and, actually, it is not too much smaller than Colleen's. It is so huge and has overgrown the pot so much that it cannot sit on the floor but has to be on a table that is high enough off the floor so that the leaves do not hit the floor. To tell the truth, I have not yet found the pot. I know it is under there somewhere but it is so well hidden with foliage that I don't expect that it will ever be seen by the human eye-again. That is, it won't be seen until the plant dies from my inability to keep it alive. Like I said, my mom can grow anything and she must have given this Charlie a good dose of something, sang it the right songs, talked to it just right or something, because I cannot believe that a Charlie could have grown this big since she purchased it in June. Now it has been placed in my inept hands to nourish and protect. What am I gonna do? Once or twice I have saved a plant. My sweet mother-in-law gave me a Boston Fern a few years ago and it nearly died before I convinced my husband to move it for me to a spot closer to the window. Now it is a beautiful, thriving fern and I love it. On the other hand, I have a good number of other plants, many of which are my mother's hand me down's, which have not grown a new leaf in five years but for some reason or other have not died, either. These plants consist of a philodendon which I have had for at least ten years and which is now down to two large leaves which have been on their own for a very long time now; some smaller philodendrons of another variety which are thick and which, miraculously, have had a couple of new leaves each year; a tall spiky thing, which I don't know the name of, which does nothing at all except droop a little when I let it go too long without water. In addition, there is a planter with a variety of plants in it which are called "tropical foliage." They are looking sadder each year but they are still hanging in there. t ji On my plant stand is one W yellow pot which has a dead nhSr it. I water it every week, jusS ' t decides to revive but it has nou revived. I can't bear to throw tE poor thing out. You'll never guess what kinrt plant this dead one was It Creeping Charlie. as 8 Someone told me once, the fi, time I ever heard of CreeDirT Charlie, that it is impossible to km them and they grow like wildfire ma you never have to worry about them You go to restaurants and youi see hanging baskets of Charlie and it looks lush and full and healthy In ' the florist shops they hang in B," ' profusion every where. 3 L Now, my mom has entrusted m with one that looks like it has never , had a sick day, that must have been fed with the best of fertilizer Zl regular basis, that has had its leaves squirted and shined, and that looks like it just came from the tender handsof the world's best gardener. I have not dared ask anyone to' move it yet. It is probably still in a trauma from the ride down from Ogden. When I do move it, it Wi take a slew of us to lift it because it is I so heavy, it will be to a spot where it can be admired by all who come to the house and where it will not block the walkway into the kitchen as it does now. Does anyone want to place bets on how long it will survive under my care? It's too bad, because it is a gorgeous thing. |