The Director of the Botanical Play

Do you talk to your plants? I do. In fact I think of myself as the director in a fast moving botanical play. Spring bulbs you are in act 1, scene 1. Roses you are at the end of act 1, so get ready. Mums, you don't appear till act 3, so just grow and grow but don't bloom till fall. All plants enter from stage left. When you have said your lines please exit from stage right. If you are a repeat bloomer, let me give you a haircut (deheading) when you exit from center stage.Green lawn please stay green and remember that you are the orchestra for this play. You must give each actor his due by playing loud and green. Madame de Bouchard Clematis you are now in the spotlight so please smile at the audience and do your thing.

Of course, there are always unexpected and sometimes unfortunate happenings during the course of the play. Sometimes you get rained out or winded out. And sometimes the actors don't even show up for the play because they failed to sprout or they died! Other times there is someone streaking the stage like last night when I had two wild brown bunnies attacking each other by the lily bed. And now and then there is a plant actor who can't go on stage and be in the limelight because they have been attacked and injured. That was the story yesterday when I discovered that the roaming deer had eaten the buds of one of the hollyhocks that was getting ready for her appearance in act 2. I've learned that I'm not really the director of this play even though I try my hardest to be. Someone up above is in charge.