Time to Divide (Plants) and Conquer (Empty Space)
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Bill Primavera
When I was a little boy, around 10 or 11, I developed a passion for gardening.
We lived in Viginia in a modest bungalow that looked like every other house in the track, originally developed during World War II to house workers that gathered at the Newport News shipyard to build the destroyers and aircraft carriers that helped us win the war.
Our house was surrounded by a large lot (at least I think it was large, or so it seemed to a little guy) that was basically barren when we moved in. There were just two oak trees, one planted on either side of the walk leading to our front door, and nothing else, not even much grass, owing to the heavy shade of the trees.
But halfway down the block on a corner lived a nice old lady, Mrs. Johnson, who was a patroness of mine of sorts, providing me with my first income of $2 every other week for mowing her lawn. It was a tough job, as I remember, because the lawnmower was not power driven – and her lot seemed endless on a hot day.
But there was another benefit to being Mrs. Johnson’s lawn boy. In the fall, she would divide her garden bulbs, mostly irises, and give her extra ones to me for planting in our yard. I was so grateful to her for her generosity, and within two or three years our once-barren yard began looking as colorful as hers with an abundance of irises. In fact, I was so grateful that I volunteered to play a solemn song on the piano at her funeral.
It was also the time when my supply of irises dried up. But, by that time, I was able to divide and multiply on my own.
In those days, there was no internet to research other plants that could be divided (How did we ever survive?), but I picked up tips from other gardeners in the neighborhood, of which there were many. It must have seemed strange to my adult neighbors for a 10-year-old doing research about gardening. At least it was cute.
Now that we have the internet, I know that the best plants for division besides irises include black-eyed Susan, garden phlox, hosta, daylilies, peonies, poppies, cornflower and yucca.
There’s something very satisfying about creating new plants from old ones, much like being a parent, creating abundance with a universe of shape and color for the garden.
And here’s a little bit of nostalgia that comes to me as I write this. As an adult, years after I had moved from that neighborhood, I happened to have had an assignment in nearby Williamsburg. I traveled the roughly 20 miles south to Newport News to visit my childhood home. When I pulled into the drive, I was greeted by a massive display of blooming irises emanating from the very spot where I had planted those bulbs about 30 years before.
Obviously, the subsequent owner – oddly there was only one who, when I rang the doorbell, remembered me as a little boy – had continued to divide and conquer garden space.
Bill Primavera is a realtor associated with William Raveis Real Estate and founder of Primavera Public Relations, Inc., the longest-running public relations agency in Westchester (www.PrimaveraPR.com), specializing in lifestyles, real estate and development. To engage the services of The Home Guru and his team to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.
Examiner Media – Keeping you informed with professionally-reported local news, features, and sports coverage.