I’m a bad plant mom!

“Vintage” stock plants grown from seed.

These “Vintage” stock plants were seeded December 31st. They’ve required care and loving attention, space and lights since then. When they came into bloom February 22, some were planted in a decorative pot and allowed to settle in for a few days.

When an evening arrived with dinner guests coming, I moved the pot to the front door to greet our guests with a bit of early spring color. It was a lovely, clear evening and we had a wonderful time with good food and conversation, something we’ve had little of these past two Covid years! Cleared the table after the guests left, put the food away, and headed to bed. Sadly, it wasn’t until the next morning I remembered I should have brought the pot back indoors.

Poor babies didn’t have a chance at 24 degrees F. They are goners and will not recover.

And remember those lovely baby yarrow plants set out a couple of weeks ago?

“Summer Berries” yarrow planted, surrounded by newspaper and mulch.

After they were so carefully planted, some crates that were stacked nearby were overturned to protect them.

Oops! One crate short….I’ll get it later….(famous last words!)

When I added the crates, I was thinking more in terms of providing shade and some protection from the wind. The next morning, when I went to check on things, I realized I’d make yet another mistake. They didn’t mind the 24 degrees F at all, but they DID mind the rabbits!

Three are GONE, one on far right has a bit of growth still intact, so it may recover!

Obviously, I need to be more consistent with my clipboard job list, so things like this don’t fall through the cracks. I can blame it on aging, being too busy, getting interrupted mid-job (because in fact all those things are true) but the fact is mistakes happen, despite our experience, our good intentions, or even being highly organized. I could beat myself up, and I do feel upset…for the plant, for the lost opportunity, for the lost flowers that could have been, for the time and energy wasted, but I’m not going to dwell on it. It’s GARDENING, and things just happen. Much of it is beyond our control, and sometimes especially in the rush of spring, we just try to juggle too much. I don’t have any more yarrow seedlings to replace them, but now there’s space for something else, and certainly more than enough plants that will be happy to have that space.

The message, especially to new gardeners is that even experienced, very experienced gardeners have failures once in a while. It’s not the end of the world, especially if one learns something in the process. So, carry on, replant, rejoice that you can be in the garden with singing birds, blooming bulbs, sprouting seeds, greening grass! S##t happens; think of it as compost!

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