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Another Cemetery Rescue
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Posted by corunum CT 6 (My Page) on Sun, Jan 10, 10 at 10:32
| Got to the cemetery to visit Mom the day after Christmas this year because of that big snow we had. Somebody had been in the area the night before because in the garbage can with no lid next to the road, there were 3 naked, pot-less poinsettias; one white, two red. Their withering leaves embraced two nip size bottles of Seagram’s 7, both empty. It looked like somebody had had a bit of Christmas cheer with a beloved spirit. Naturally, I felt sorry for the tropical plants exposed to such cold, so I went dumpster diving for discarded foil to wrap their roots in and brought them home.
My winter window space is all taken up by geraniums and wheatgrass for the cat, so a neighbor took the hardiest red and the white poinsettia which now happily live facing south in a large window in large pots with new soil. After snipping off the frostbitten parts of my now tiny tropical refugee, I scrounged around outside and brought in two pots. One had leftover soil and was frozen so it went down to the laundry room sink to thaw. Yesterday, I went down to the laundry room and to my surprise, I was rewarded for having saved those poinsettias.
Okay, so it’s only a dandelion, but it’ll grow and I’ll throw the leaves in a salad. Question is, do any of my fellow gardeners come home from the cemetery with rescues? Never ceases to amaze me what people buy to decorate graves then the flowers/plants/even shrubs sometimes, are tossed. For years, every June, I have come home with cemetery garbage pail geraniums. The big one in back of the poinsettia is one from 4 years ago. Anyone else? I can’t be the only bleeding heart dumpster diver here, can I?
Jane
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Another Cemetery Rescue
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- Posted by skibby 4 Central Vermont (My Page) on
Mon, Jan 11, 10 at 13:08
| I've found some very good stuff in the "throw away pile". Bulbs, lilacs, some very nice pots and even an urn. (cracked but still usable). Most or all of the cemetaries around here prohibit planting in the ground (hmmm, plants I mean) so everything is potted up. When its time for mowing, the maintainence crew just throws everything over the bank. |
RE: Another Cemetery Rescue
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I haven't been in the vicinity of a cemetery with good pickings in a while, but I wanted to say that your delight at the "gift" from karma of the dandelion really made me smile! Thanks!
Deb |
RE: Another Cemetery Rescue
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| I started a garden business due to the thrown away flower pots I found at my father's cemetary. The custodian of the cemetary gave them to me. Now every spring March thru July I pot up perennials from my gardens and make some $$$$$. Often cemetaries have a clean up date when they remove pots from graves and toss them. If you contact the caretaker prior to that date you can get spring tulips, daffodils, mums, etc and haul them home. Bulbs are perennial!!!! |
RE: Another Cemetery Rescue
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| That's a very interesting idea. My house butts up against a large cemetary and I constantly see plants in pots placed on the graves, always saddens me to see them get thrown away. :( I think I will call up the caretaker and see what I can work out, at the very least it's less work for the staff if I can take keep some plants out of their garbage cans. |
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