September 13, 2010

How to Care for a Daisy Plant

Today I am publishing a guest blog from Cheri Sarmento, of Tahoe City, California. Cheri sent this to me in response to the comments and discussion surrounding my last post, titled "Ploughing Forward." The pictures are of Cheri and her daisies, and this guest blog and the pictures are published with her permission.
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How To Care For A Daisy Plant - by Cheri Sarmento
A daisy plant blossoms and grows throughout its season, continually adding flowers that bring beauty, substance and fullness to its life. When this rich season begins to change, and some of the daisies begin to fade and wither, the flowers left behind must stretch and strain to stay healthy and to adjust to the differences in the way their plant is now growing. Suddenly the plant has lost some of its beauty and will never be the same. The flowers left behind must be cared for with gentleness so they can continue to reach and to grow.

How do we care for our daisy plant? What do we do with the flowers that fade and wither? How do we care for the daisies left behind, to maintain their health and stability and life, while at the same time progressing them toward renewal and strength and growth?

When some of the daisies wither, do we pull them out of the plant, blossom, stem, leaves and all? We may think, "This plant is plenty full. Pulling out some of the stems won't harm it." But, when we do so, we leave the plant sparse. The daisies left behind no longer have their firm base on which to stand. They topple, they droop, they become separated from one another. They are sad and ragged and fragmented. Their base is exposed to weeds, bramble and drought.
Instead, we should carefully prune only the withered blossoms away. This leaves the stems, the leaves, the very foundation from which the little daisies first began to grow. Careful pruning enables the daisies left behind to reach tall, to stretch, to adhere to their comfortable base and join together with strength. Their base is full and healthy, full of life and support.

Careful, gentle pruning does not harm or cause pain to the daisies; rather, it allows those who are left behind to keep their good health and enables them, when they are strong and accepting, to make room for new blossoms who will enhance and add beauty to the plant. As the seasons come and go, the daisy plant grows richly and plentifully, not only because of the flowers who gave it its firm foundation and have now faded away, but also because of its new blossoms who have brought to it freshness and new dimension.

4 comments:

  1. Ahhh... very nice. I like this: "Careful, gentle pruning does not harm or cause pain to the daisies".

    What do you think, George?

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  2. I like daisies a lot. They seem like a cheerful brand of flowers. It sounds like this Cheri person knows a thing or two about flowers and caring for them. Being a bit obtuse myself, I don't really know what it all has to do with the discussion we had going about plowing and elephants and such. The daisy theme, though, kind of harkens me back to the old Jud Strunk song, "Daisy a Day." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB8G0SFmJ1g

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  3. I really like the writing of your guest blogger. I like daisies a lot too. It sounds like Cheri knows how to take care of daisies, whatever form they may come in...

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  4. Cheri needs a blog site! Tell her about mine. I'm doing the last daisy pruning this afternoon. Prepping for winter! I post it. Janice

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