Lainey, I've always felt the same way. After all, they are living things and who is to know otherwise? They do respond to stimuli like turning towards the sunlight...how do they know to do that?

I don't know how I decide if a plant is male or female...I just know.

I'm with you. I am continually talking to the garden. If my neighbors were closer they'd probably throw a net over me. I just asked the tall fir tree in the courtyard if he minded the two feet of dirt put on top of his roots 20 years ago. He said no. McT

"They do respond to stimuli like turning towards the sunlight"

That is called tropism, I know why it is called tropism, but not how they know. Gravitropism means the roots grow toward the center of the earth, why?

I want to know why?

Why do birds sing.

I don't care why someone would buy a big fat gas guzzling car but I want to know why plants do what they do. Plants surely are more noble living organisms than me, why?

Why can a billion or more organisms live in a gram of soil, because they live in harmony, contributing to a symbiotic system in concert with natural laws, why?

So, I asked H.'Great Expectations' why it is so fussy about growing, he looked at me as if to ask "why you ask silly questions"? Why you ask, you have dominion over me why don't your figure it out, why?

What natural law explains war. Why? What's it good for? Huh?

Plants exihibit tropism because it is to their benefit....they grow better with their leaves to the sun, because they need the sun to create carbs.
Someone buys a big fat gas guzzling car because it's to their benefit( they think!)..it protects them from accidents, boosts their self esteem, attracts those that they want to attract and allows them to carry large amounts of stuff necessary to maintain their "life style".
GE is fussy because it has no use in the natural order of things. The world would be as well off if all the Great Expectations suddenly mutated into undulatas....except for mine, of course!
Linda C

Huh?

Have you all been growing something other than hosta and smoking it?

Sorry, but other than the tropism thing, whatever you're talking about doesn't seem to happen in my gardens.

My hosta must be mutes.

Never have heard them say a thing, no laughing, no crying, no nagging or complaining.... nothing.

Even when I've accidently stepped on them or divided them with a butcher knife, I've never heard a peep out of them.

Just peace & quiet out there with them.

Oh well...different strokes for different folks.

you said ..... i said:

Ken posited that if the hosta has a man's name, it is a masculine and therefore should be called "him/he."

-----------------------

NO ... NO..... NO ....

POSITED ..... SCHMOZITED ...

i made a joke ... not a metaphysicl statement of reality ...

i stated a FACT ... alex is a man .... i didnt say the hosta was male ....

jeez... lol

ken

Ken, I like your sense of humor...(-:

Sassy, I am with you...definitely doesn't happen in my garden (-:

As for gender, some are obviously female (June, QoTS) and some obviously male...at least in my mind...all the others are "its". My sweet husband thinks I am crazy enough as it is, lol

Speaking of QoTS, my special QoTS was sort of drooping until yesterday when stood up looking good none the worse for its trip.

May have suffered US Mail lag?

Botanybabe, you have started a wonderful discussion. Folks who live above the line won't have a clue what you're talking about, but those who have ventured beyond will understand fully (Joseph Campbell's idea). Your view is widely shared in the world. I study aboriginal cultures, and no matter where you go in the world, you find this belief that the natural world is also a spirit world. For North American Indians, this is a commonplace.

But besides aboriginal cultures, you find this view in sophisticated philosophies and world religions. The American Transcendentalists (Thoreau, Emerson, etc.) and Greek Pantheists both held that the spirit infused everything natural.

The really intriguing idea is that the same spirit that you find in your plants is also in you. So when you connect with your plants, you are really just connecting with your self -- your inner self.

Thanks for inviting us out on your limb.

Do any of you older folks remember the song called
Aunt Molly's Fun Garden?
This discussion reminded me of that 60's song.
Oh well........

"The really intriguing idea is that the same spirit that you find in your plants is also in you."
Evermore, thank you so much for your insight.

I feel the idea that we have dominion over everything is the worst thing ever brought to our view of the world. Don't take me to task proofing the Bible, I know well what it says. I believe those passages are misunderstood.

Evermore are you familiar with "Terra Preta", if not as a gardener you will find it interesting. This new found knowledge of ancient cultures may hold the answer to the worlds food shortages.

Here is what I do believe; we must find where we fit in to a natural system doing no harm. When we walk through the woods or on a meadow there should be no apparent or significant change. No more change than you might notice after a rabbit or deer walks by. Our gardens do not make significant changes and doesn't harm or change the basic natural process we only change "what" is growing where.

Wow, I am really digging this thread. I have an anthropology minor, and I have longed believed that our early civilizations had it right in how they provided for their lives while preserving their precious environment. And they did this by listening to the land. Then along came the know it alls with their "modern, know-it-all civilization", and look at the hopeless mess we're in. I once read a quotation that I loved--it was something about man going around in circles, and ending up with, "And man never knew that what hit him from behind was man". Guard your backsides people and stop and talk to your plants. PS I love some of the posts above--so very wise and thoughtful and well written. Mary

I am loving this too and am with you spirit people. EO, how Zen, great! I agree the aboriginal people had it right, way more right than the current "civilization" and I use that term loosly. A good friend often kids me about being "off with the fairies" very true and I'm thankful I am. I'll go out on a limb and jump right off. I feel like I'm "chaneling" my experiences as a Pueblo resident when I am working on creating my desire for adobe walls. I ignore advice about applying with trowels or even gloves and smooth it by hand. If "feels" like this is the correct way and it works for me. McT

I'm with you on the gender issue. I call all of my plants (not just the hosta) him or her. I don't know what it is that determines the gender, just a vibe I get. I was pondering the issue when I realized that I don't assign gender to trees... but I always think of them as being very wise.

I can never figure out the squirrels though. I generally call them all "that guy"... then one day when I was telling one that it was fat (I might have used the term "morbidly obese") and needed to put down the acorn and back away, I realized it was pregnant.

For the record, she did lower the acorn and glare at me for a moment as if to say, "Who you callin' fat guy? Any moron could see that I'm pregnant so the term GUY doesn't exactly apply."

My neighbors overheard me talking to the squirrel (not the drunk neighbor... he'd have understood, I think). They've sort of looked at me with quizzical expressions ever since.