As most aspects of the garden wind down, cleaning old beds and pulling dead or soon to die plants takes priority this time of year. It has always seemed bittersweet to liberate plants from the soil right after or even during their peak. That was the case a little over a month ago at Green Chimneys when we needed to pull cosmos from one of the beds near the administration building.
Surprisingly there seemed to be something forbidden about pulling these tall sentinels as many were still in full bloom and had buds to match. I told a couple of co-workers that I would be pulling the plants and they were more than welcome to make a bouquet from the flowers. “That’s great,” said one. “It’s my favorite flower.” She had been a little morose before but the prospect of a colorful bunch of flowers perked her right up.
My charges were also unexpectedly enthusiastic about the chore. They were excited that they would be able to pull these plants from the soil. Kid after kid grabbed a bunch of stems and planted one foot so they could get better leverage to pull the clumps of flowers from the ground. Some of the root masses were huge so they needed a bit of help though the frustration and the resistance given by these soon-to-be-composted plants didn’t bother them.
“By the way Paul, after you finish pulling plants, you can make a bouquet of flowers if you would like,” I said to one of day’s first weeders. Paul loved that idea and worked even harder than he had been before. After he pulled the cosmos he placed them carefully so it would be easy to cull flowers from the newly liberated plants.
But the weeding was not only influencing the children but passers by as well. People were giving us looks while we were weeding so I started to offer them a flower or two. I thought it was a simple gesture as all of these flowers would be returning to the ground. Nearly every time I got a big smile and thanks from those who took a flower. One social worker with whom I had worked with previously said to us, “This is wonderful. You have made my day.”
It was a big job so I spent most of the day in the beds pulling cosmos and giving flowers to strangers, young and old. Sometimes people asked what we were doing as we were broadcasting the seed heads into the bed so that next year’s flowers would grow. I stopped my pulling and got out my pocket knife and cut a blossom, a blooming flower and a dried-up seed pod. Using these three examples I explained to them the life cycle of the cosmo and how it reproduces. Most were intrigued and thanked me after they picked a flower or two of their choice.
As I was giving flowers away I thought back to imaginary from the 1960s where “Love,” “Peace” and “Flower Power” represented some of the unifying thoughts of the era’s counter culture and youth as well as the 1980s when I worked in New York City. There I would be given flowers by followers of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who founded the Unification Church as I neared Penn Station to catch my train home. Unlike these givers, I had no agenda. I just wanted to give a flower to someone to make them happy.
