Life Lessons From A Curious Amateur Gardener: Practicing Patience

I keep a garden of potted plants on my patio, and due to a lack of indoor storage space, I have to trim back the plants each year and leave the pots out all winter. 

When spring rolled around this year, one resilient plant showed signs of life again after a cold winter. I showed my mom the young leaves and she said “Did you plant chrysanthemums last year? It could be them… or it could be a weed.” 

I did plant chrysanthemums...but it only had one red flower (it’s pot-mate took over most of the real estate). I wasn’t sure such an unimpressive plant could survive this long, but I let the possibility be. 

I filled my other pots with flowers which budded, bloomed, and expanded. Week after week, my early-sprouter was surrounded by flourishing flowers, but showed no signs of a single bud of its own. Last-year’s chrysanthemum flowered by summer, so surely, it must be a weed.  I could pluck it now and put something more glamorous there.

But the mum family likes cooler weather...so I let it grow, I watered and trimmed it every so often, and held out hope. 

Summer turned to Fall. My flowers withered. It was time for a postseason prune, and once again I almost weeded my chrysantha-weed. But it was still green! So I gave it a drink and let it be. 

A week later, after a big rain and big sun, I looked out the window at my dwindling garden, and found…

 …a flourishing, full, sturdy bunch of brand new beautiful plum colored flowers!

After an unremarkable 1st bloom, a frigid winter, and a patient spring & summer, it bloomed more spectacularly than I could have expected! And after a few frosts, it’s still thriving here in the Fall chill. 

…

It’s really hard not to compare yourself to the other flowers in the garden, isn’t it? 

Maybe this week, if you feel like you aren’t seeing the results you want or expect, ask yourself: “Am I still growing? Am I giving my goals and dreams some water and sun each day?” 

If so...YOU *ARE* SUCCEEDING!! 

My plant was a chrysanthemum all along, not just when the flowers bloomed. 

And they wouldn’t have bloomed without care, resilience, persistence, and consistency. Keep at it, little plants, and your flowers will bloom in their season!