It was a beautiful late summer
morning in the Nursery. The irrigation
had just delivered its ¼ inch of nutrient laden rain and the mist was slowly
rising from the fresh puddles on the black weed barrier cloth. Paul Palmatum is
just opening his stomata to breathe the fresh morning air next to all his
siblings in the plant tray.
Paul is a one year seedling just
like all the others in his flat. Similar
size, leaf color, stem diameter….every plant the same.
“UGGGGHHHHH” groaned Paul. “I am
just another little Japanese Maple amongst thousands. What will I become? How will I ever stand out in the landscape?”
“Quit your complaining!” shouted
his flat mate Peter Palmatum. “Of course we are the same. Mike the Manager
(also known around the Nursery as “Clipper
Mike”) wants us that way.
Predictability, uniformity, and equality are the traits Clipper Mike wants
in an Understock. Remember the nail that
sticks up gets quickly hammered.”
“Whatever” mumbled Paul. “I just
want to be something special someday.”
Next to the block of Japanese Maple
Understocks was a large block of thousands of potted Boxwoods. All the boxwoods were very excited as they
were all lined up to go through the trimming machine. The boxwood next to Paul was named BOB 32. He was 14 inches form his neighbor
Boxwood BOB 33.
“How can you stand it?” asked
Paul. “After you guys go through the
trimming machine you will all look even more identical than you do now. And why for crying out loud are you all named
BOB???”
“We want to be exactly alike!” said
BOB 64. “We also like the name BOB
because it is spelled the same forward and backward. Everything is the same.”
“You guys are hopeless! Can’t at least one of you be a Topiary or
something?”
“We save that for the Green
Mountain Boxwood” remarked BOB 28.
Later that year Paul and all his
flat mates were brought into the warm greenhouse. Much to Paul’s dismay they
were all cut to a height of 15 inches.
“Great!” moaned Paul, “Now I look
like a pencil; a tray of 35 EXACT DUPLICATE PENCILS!. This is just not going to do. I have finally realized that as a plant, I am
a non-conformist!”
“Relax dude,” said Perry Palmatum
from the corner slot in the tray. “I heard a rumor that, as Understocks, we are
slated by Clipper Mike to be grafted with scions of ‘Crimson Queen’ Japanese
Maple. This means that we will grow with
irregular forms, frilly red cut-leaf foliage, and each have an individual
unique weeping habit.”
Paul could not believe his
ears. He was so excited that night he
could barely keep his buds from breaking dormancy.
“I hope the knife cut won’t hurt,”
remarked one of his flat mates Peter Palmatum.
“I just don’t want an ugly scar!”
said Pricilla Palmatum. “You all
remember that botched top graft on that Weeping Snow Fountain Cherry last
spring. She will never wear a Bikini
again.”
The next day Paul and all his flat
mates were brought to the grafting table. True they were frightened, but a new
destiny awaited them all. Before they
knew it, the Professional Propagator snipped, slashed, sliced, and tied.
The Nitrogen boost they had all been
given had barely worn off when Paul woke up to find himself mulched up around
the graft and sitting in a warm, humid comfortable graft case. That is when Paul noticed he was not alone.
“Who the heck are you!” inquired
the weak and wounded seedling.
“Hi buddy!” replied the very over
dramatic Crimson Queen. “I am your new top.
This is fantastic! Just yesterday I was just another branch on a tree
and now, thanks to your roots, I am off with you to plot our new destiny.”
Paul was shocked. “This is going to
take some getting used to,” he muttered quietly to himself. “I don’t know if he and I are compatible.”
Time passed, the incision healed,
and Paul’s Understock top above the graft was removed. He realized that he and
the Crimson Queen had become one; one tree, one spirit, one very odd and unique
plant. When spring arrived and the “new” Paul leafed out, he had to admit he
had some pretty fancy duds.
“This is really, really
strange. I guess these fancy leaves are
pretty cool but I sure hope we don’t get a frost or a hailstorm.”
“Relax Paul,” Clipper Mike assured
him from the door of the greenhouse. “That’s what we managers do in the
nursery….protect and keep you delicate “Broadway Showgirl wanna’bees from
harm.”
Time passed, Paul grew, and one day
Clipper Mike stopped by.
“It’s time to train a strong center
leader on you Paul.” Paul was
horrified. He was so proud of his crossing
branches, twisted stems, and his generally mop like canopy.
“Please Clipper Mike, don’t destroy
my new persona. Let me be me!” You could
almost imagine the soundtrack to ‘Born
Free’ playing in the greenhouse.
“Quit whining! Without a central
leader and a strong branching structure you will collapse like the Atlanta Highway
Department when you hit your first ice storm.”
And so Clipper Mike trimmed…and staked….and trained…and thinned. Afterward Paul had to admit he did like the
new look.
“Kind of strong and virile with a
touch of whimsy” he admitted to himself.
Several years passed in the Nursery
and Paul grew, with the help of Clipper Mike to become quite a specimen. Although he often heard the mechanical noise
of the trimming machines that buzzed all around him, he never feared that he
would lose the unique appearance that had become his nature.
One day, with little warning and no
emotion, Paul was pulled from his growing bay, placed on a trailer with Boxwood BOB 32, 23, 67, 324, 42, and 107.
“Hi Guys! How have you been?”
“Great!” they all answered in
unison. “We all look so alike they have
chosen us to be a border hedge to accent you, our
Specimen Focal Point.” It
was clear that the Boxwoods used this term with a great deal of reverence. “We live to serve.”
Paul was speechless. He was so shocked he almost wilted. His dream to be unique and a non-conformist tree
is coming true. He also realized that,
without the plain green round little balls that were his Boxwood friends his
unique appearance would not be so clearly defined.
“A place for every Plant” he
finally realized, “Thanks to Clipper Mike for having the skills to grow plants with
diversity.”
Brian Decker
El Presidinte
Propagator
Tee-Shirt Model
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“Plants Nouveau is the licensing agent for a new higher PH
tolerant Rhododendron known as Inkarho #37.
If we use the talents of the Propagators at Decker’s Nursery to graft
scions of North American cultivars onto Inkarho #37 understocks, we can use
these new plants for distribution into the parts of the United States currently
terrorized by this serial killer,” stated the FBI in a news conference. “We may not be able to put Phytophthora
Root Rot in a jail cell, but we can stop the madness.The FBI has taken all steps
possible to guard and protect the young plants necessary to develop this
program. “Security is tight,” said the FBI spokesperson, “I would not want to
be a Pathogen attempting to sneak into Decker’s Nursery to do harm.”
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