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containerted

Never...Never...Never...Never...Never give up

containerted
15 years ago

I would like to tell you a short story. Back in May, I ordered and received some plants from Gardeners Choice that didn't make a good trip with the US Postal Service. When they arrived, they were "Cooked". One of the Big Rainbow plants had only a 9 or 10 inch stem that ended in what appeared to be a small "ragged" or fuzzy tip. All the foliage had turned yellow and fallen off. Under a magnifying glass, the ragged end was a 2 mm long edge that appeared to be possibly the edge of a leaf. Over the years, I've saved a lot of plants so I decided to put it into a cup of mix and see what would happen. After two weeks, it perked up and little branches came out everywhere. I was SO proud of the plant AND of myself for saving it. (Sorry for the two pictures from a computer screen. I couldn't find the original .JPG's. These two are from an Email I had sent to a friend)

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Then I accidently bumped it one day and it broke in the middle of the stem and my heart sank. We had tried soooo hard. I was so angry with myself that I didn't want to look at it, kinda ashamed to face it. Finally I decided that "3rd time charmed" might apply and continued to water it. And, about two weeks later.....

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Then I placed it where I couldn't hurt it again and just began treating it like all the others I was growing. By now, it was six weeks behind everything else, but it began to grow very quickly. The main stalk got thick and the foliage was gorgeous. Today, I saw something that I'd seen on a couple of other plants in the past, and here it is.

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The top of the main stem decided to terminate in a Megabloom and I am just hoping I can get a fruit out of it.

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I guess my message here is never to give up on a plant. I could easily have tossed this plant on the compost pile back in early May. But this little fella just refused to die, no matter what abuse I threw at it!!! WELL...., now it's got a front row seat in the sunshine and I'm hoping the big bloom will set a fruit. But mostly, I want seed from this plant. It is so tenacious about living, that I want some copies next year. I'm worried that it's too late in the year, but I'm going to try and grow this one out far enough to get some seed.

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