Something strange has been happening on my front porch for the last couple of years. At first I thought it was a random occurrence. Or a mistake made on my part. But careful observation and some consultation with friend Nancy have lead me to the realization that there is actually something going on.
Every year since I started to get my life back (sometime in 2003 or 2004) I plant flowers in these pots in the spring. Always the same thing. Petunias, impatiens, a little ivy, and some tall grass for the back. Every year by halfway through the summer the plants in the pot on the right hand side of the door are flourishing--growing like crazy with flowers galore. And every year the plants in the pot on the left hand side of the door are...just green. They're not dead, mind you. Just not blooming either. So puzzling.
This summer when it happened again I figured that something must be done. So I asked friend Nancy what to do. She said that the non-flowering pot was probably not getting enough sun. How could that be, I asked? They are both sitting on the same porch! Flanking the same door! Separated by just 73 inches! (Yes, I measured. If you must know.) But apparently there is a difference. And so I switched the pots in the middle of the summer.
When we got back from Utah the pot I had moved to the right was now blooming profusely so I switched them again. The picture above was taken two or three weeks later. Already I could see that the blooming was slowing down on the left, and beginning on the right.
My first thought was that this is rather annoying. These are heavy pots, filled with lots of potting soil. I am inconvenienced by needing to keep moving them!
My second thought (because Mormons Like Analogies) was that this is probably a lot like life. There are probably plenty of times in my life when I am not blooming as much as I could be because I am not getting enough sun. Or, I should more accurately say, because I am not getting enough Son. Perhaps I am only 73 inches away from enough Son--sitting on the wrong side of the door and telling myself that I am so close that it shouldn't make any difference.
I think I should start noticing sooner when I'm not quite blooming like I should be, and move myself closer to the light...
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just a thought -- if you don't want to switch pots back & forth all summer, you could plant more shade-desiring plants on the shady side to make it look like they're asymmetrical by design. :) Great analogy, though.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I could do that--I'm way too symmetrical for that! I'll have all winter to think it over, though!
ReplyDeleteWOW. That's a good one...and I totally agree. Thanks for the insight.
ReplyDeleteThat is hard sometimes. Sometimes I feel like a heavy pot with too much potting soil!!!
ReplyDeleteLaila--sometimes I feel like my pot is too heavy to move. But lately it's more that I spend months & months arguing with myself that I am in a perfectly good spot, and there surely must be another reason that I'm not blooming!
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