Extreme gardeners, 'fess up: have you ever?

Waiting to hear about the Charlie Brown Halloween Shrub...

Wuvie... me too! Didya rescue the sad little shrub?

LOL, Chantell! Like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree?

Exactly...LOL

I'm waiting also to see if the little survivor will have a new, happy home.

So, WUVIE, did you get the shrub? What kind is it?

uh-ohhhh.....hope she's not in the slammer... maybe we'd better start getting her bail together, huh? LOL

The suspense is killing me!

Did she or didn't she???

LOL, you all are too funny. Actually, I spent the day in Tulsa doing job interview
related projects, and as such was not able to save the poor thing. However,
it is still standing there, waiting. Unless I get a call tomorrow, I'll see what I can
do to rescue the poor thing.

It was fun to come home after spending a day in the big city to find a fun
conversation, thank you all!

:-)

With all the psychic, nurturing gardeners' energy that is now surrounding this waif of a shrub, it may be the size of a Sequoia when you see it again. LOL

Jeremy

LOL Jeremy, with a halo of light around it beaming down from the sky.

And mysteriously decorated with lights, ornaments, and a star on top....showing us the true spirit of gardening. Or plant snitching (grins)

This may sound morbid, but here's what I've done numerous times:

The cemetary where my folks are buried removes all flowers etc. from the graves on Wednesdays. They have a crew that goes along and just rips everything out and throws it all in the back of a huge flat bed truck. Then they dump everything in huge piles behind one of the chapels. The florist comes and takes the wooden easels and reusable containers.

By the time they've finished going through everything, there are always lots of potted lilies, azaleas, and just about anything blooming that comes in a 6" or 8" pot. They don't really care if you take the stuff because it all gets hauled away to a landfill anyhow. I don't spend more than 10 or 15 minutes doing it, but I always come back with some perfectly good plants which otherwise would have been dumped.

Oh oh oh! Brilliant suggestion. Absolutely brilliant. Whole plants and the possibility of re-usable containers is far too titillating for me. Never thought of asking the funeral chapels around here if I could pick through their plant pile.

I recently attended a wake and we sent a floral arrangement of all live house plants. Thought being that each child and grandchild of the deceased would be able to split apart the arrangement to take home a plant. I literally just learned that the entire arrangement was pitched. GASP, each plant was in an individual pot and decorative Spanish moss was woven in and around the bases of the plant to create the illusion that everything was fresh cut. It wasn't. The whole kit and caboodle was pitched. I have no idea where the funeral homes pitch the arrangements the families don't want to take home but I'd sure like to find out.

I've been to wakes where I have seen whole potted hydrangeas in arrangements. I remember thinking how nice it would be to get my hands on some of those Nikko Blue plants if I only could figure out how to ask for the discards.

Is there a cemetary near you? I'm sure they have one designated day of the week when they clear everything away...at least that's how they do it here.

I wouldn't ask at the actual funeral parlor/mortuary, though...I have a friend who works for one and they take everything from the mortuary either to the church (if they're having a church service after a viewing) and/or then to the cemetary...where it usually just get's piled in a huge heap after the actual burial and the family has taken what they want.

I'm sure the family you sent the plant basket to didn't intentionally pitch the offering you sent...given the circumstances at the time. But your heart was in the right place for doing it anyway.

There are quite a few cemeteries around here. One thing I've noticed is that they don't pitch plants from gravesites weekly. We generally get a quarterly notice that we need to remove all planters and plants for the spring so they can do spring cleaning of debris that blew in from people pitching garbage from their car windows or in the winter so the silks don't look raggedy by spring or whatever. They give us about a week and then everything gets pitched. Haven't noticed many live flowers at gravesites these days but that could be due to our climate. Seems as if all the live arrangements are at the funeral homes and they only take to the gravesite what can fit in and around the casket in the hearse.

The family we sent the floral arrangement to was in shock. It's my fault. I should have waited for an opportunity to mention to one of them that every flower was live and individually potted and that there was one for the surviving spouse, each child, and each grandchild. They're simply not going to be thinking along those lines at the time of loss so in lieu of mentioning something to the family, perhaps it would have been best if I had contacted the funeral home and asked them to set it aside for them or for me to bring to them at a later date after the shock wore off. Simply stated, the florist did too good of a job and I doubt seriously if they knew the arrangement comprised individual live plants.

My former secretary had a 3rd job several years ago... she would water the plants at the cemetary and on a certain day, like you said, ALL the plants were picked up. THAT is how she build her awesome garden. Her family thought it was ghastly, I think it's genius!

I hate to even THINK about how many cemetary are now going to have DGers rumaging thru their garbage or applying for plant care positions!! Go get 'em DG!!! ;-)

Wow, JD, you may have sparked a nationwide wave of cemetery plant rescue! We shall resurrect them--do I hear an "AMEN"?

Resurrect them??? LOL>.. oh my!!!

Amen! Waste not want not!

If I was dead and had nice flowers 6' above me, I'd want all of you to pick my gravesite bare. I don't think it would be ghastly at all to strip me of flowers. You'd probably put a big fat smile on my face down there.

I'll call the cemetery that has two chapels on its premises tomorrow and see if they have a pick up day per week. Hmmm, wonder how many others are going to be calling their local cemeteries to find out what pick up day is?

YIKES ! What have I started here? LOL !!!

I don't want to be blamed for people being arrested for grave robbing !
Remember: I said I have taken stuff from the GARBAGE mounds...not the actual graves...and besides, I stumbled upon the whole thing by accident when I was at the cemtary and they had diverted traffic from the main roads around to the back due to a water leak or something like that.

Is it too late for me to "plead the 5th" ??? LOL

Jasper, I have "specially marked" this thread so I can testify that YOU advised these people how to rip off graves so YOU are to blame... yep, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!

As in the warrior who passes in battle, surely to freeze in a dumpster would be so noble a passage?

You have a valid point. We're all going to die and if we gotta go, what better way than to be weighted down with plants in our pockets and arms frozen with a smile on our faces at the bottom of one of those dumpster. You first Dyson.

ROFLMBO!!!!

But alas, I am already destined to become yet another greasy spot on a twisty country road (can't keep the shiny side up forever).

LOL! This thread just keeps getting better. I like the timing of this subject. Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are just around the corner. Well, in a couple of weeks. Marigolds are the traditional flower, I think.

OMG....now THIS is a new idea for me...love it!!! Can we start a DG "bail" fund "just in case?"

If you all end up with your mug shots in the post office, don't blame me !

It might be useful---WUVIE hasn't checked in to tell us whether or not the poor little plant is safe.

I agree--Podster suggested we ask for bail in the form of plants rather than money!

Okay, now I'm upset. Today, I drove up to the site and what
did I see? The shrub was GONE. Yes, gone. Not only was it
gone, but there were several obvious holes where someone
had removed other plants and such.

I can't believe it! A plant nabbing! Help!

Well, that's what I get for farting around, though I imagine
the nearby small nursery owners may have spotted the potential
for profit, dug 'em up and we'll see them at next year's Farmer's
Market, LOL!

;-)

You snoze, you lose in this nabbing business. Hopefully that bush is cared for by the nabber.

Oh, noooo, Wuvie, I'm sooo sorry to hear that! Darn it!

"I can't believe it! A plant nabbing! Help!" HELLO??? Wuvie, EXACTLY what do you call what YOU had planned??? LOL *sheez... shaking head in disbelief*

I think there's a very fine line between "nabbing" and "rescuing", right? LOL

LOL, somebody "nabbed" it from Wuvie!