Gardeners Don't Need Transitions

Three Local Plants Sales With High School Intern Lily

“Hey, Don’t let me forget I have flowers for your Momma,” high school intern Lily says when she walks up. “OK, and don’t let me forget we need to do a video later.” Lily and I sometimes speak in unrelated sentences; without transitions, we speak a list of things we need to do. But I certainly don’t want to forget about flowers for Momma.

I know more about Lily than I do most interns who’ve worked on the farm. That’s true though others have lived here with us. Lily doesn’t. She drives her Mom’s SUV over from the suburbs. Most interns work full-time. Lily comes for only a couple of hours in the afternoons. Others talk more about their family and their background. But Lily doesn’t need to. Because, for her first 12 years or so, Lily walked across the field and down the magnolia lane to get here. Back then, her family lived there, across the field. Her Mom would text, ‘Kids On the Way.’ I'd listen for voices, but usually, Buck, our dusty white donkey, would hear them and bray his alert before I heard a squeal.

Today Lily and I work together without catching up, without learning about each other’s history. We don’t dwell on the good old days, and I don’t often think of her as a child. She’s tall and athletic and deft at taking perennial cuttings. She talks about her college campus tours. I give her boss-ly advice, “Look into the new Climate Conservation Corps President Biden established. It's for young people to work on climate problems like marine birds in Alaska.” Lily is polite, “Alaska is a long way away. You know I won’t be at work tomorrow. Our FFA Mum sale is starting.” Lily and I don’t need smooth transitions.

She’s here because of the FFA work/study program, which lets her go to school in the morning and work on a farm in the afternoon. For a fundraiser, they raise Mums in the fall. “Let’s go look at our Mums. We need to do cuttings of them too. These are different from the ones y’all raise.” I want to give her a lesson a perennials vs. annuals. I have a whole essay ready for her, but I hold back. “Wait! Let’s take these Mums to Miss Gloria!” We do that. While she and Momma talk, I remember a day ten years ago when Lily picked bundles of Mum flowers in Momma’s garden. Lily doesn’t need a lesson on Mums because she’s been around them her whole life. I love these transitions.

Plant List

Chrysanthemum. Some Chrysanthemums are perennials in our USDA Zone 8. It’s worth planting your mums! They might come back. (If you don’t know, read this book)

Pyrosia ‘ Wavy Leaf Tongue Fern

Antique Rose. Rose ‘Ruth’s Tea Scented China

Sage. Salvia 'Jenks Farmer’

Showy Okra. Ablemoschus manihot