An Anniversary Celebration, and Some Terence McKenna

Terence McKenna

The weekend is almost here, yay! My husband announced last night that he’s taking us to the place we first met five years ago, for an ‘anniversary’ dinner and some reenactments of our first date activities. I’m really looking forward to it. The place where we first saw each other has remained very special for both of us.

By the time we first met, we had both already spent our lives giving much more than we received. We had aligned ourselves with clingy people who drained our resources and energies, childish people with vanishingly small intellects, controlling people who canceled out our ambitions and dreams, angry people whose minds are in wreckage. When we finally met, we fell in love fast, knowing that the search for peace, love, and loyalty was over. I’m thankful every day.

Back to gardening. I found a cold-hardy palm tree with a price tag of $42 and a hefty shipping fee, but I think that, come this spring, I’m going to order two or three. This variety is designed to survive in our Zone 6. No doubt it will require substantial care to thrive. But if it works, it’s worth it. A grove of palm trees in Connecticut. Yes.

I ordered a large Black Pearl amaryllis online. I’ve heard about the Black Pearl and have seen photos of it. For many years, I’ve thought about getting one, and this turned out to be the year. It’s the deepest red imaginable; a really beautiful hybrid.

This will be one bulb that I will cultivate for its pollen, not its seed. I’d rather not deplete the bulb by forcing it though its entire reproductive cycle, but I would love to pollinate it to another variety and see what the result is. So, I also ordered some pollen tubes (12 for $1, can’t go wrong): pollen can be gathered, sealed in these vials, and kept for months in the freezer.

I’ve not yet seen a double Black Pearl, but I have a double pink bulb about to be potted up, and I think I’ll try pollinating the Black Pearl to the double. You never know what you’ll get, but the anticipation is always fun. It will take at least 3 years for the resulting seed to reach bloom size, but the wait is worth it.

I was listening to some of the teachings of Terence McKenna this morning. McKenna was a powerful social activist and botanist with a profound respect for the natural world. He roamed the Amazon jungles looking for cultivars of all kinds. Later in life, he lived in Hawaii full-time, where he cultivated many interesting plants, always marveling at their diversity. He had this to say about them:

“Plants have souls. The carry within them the morphogenetic field of thousands of years. When you take a plant in your hand, it also takes you. Its inner riches are incomparable. It has a soul. It has a story.”

That’s the truest truth. Any dedicated gardener, seed saver, or botanist knows this. There’s a universe inside of every seed. Infused with tens of thousands of years of genetic coding, a tiny seed carries all the potential of the present and future within it. A miraculous spark of life resides there. All new generations are waiting to be born of it. If you’re looking for miracles, for the finger of God, there it is. How can you not be thrilled with it?

Live in peace.