Way back in 1994, we moved to highland county on a small farm. I started selling real estate that year and spent many hours riding around the beautiful countryside looking for properties to list and just meeting the local residents.
I had a red convertible and it was summertime and I loved my life, (I still do). Of course, while I was out driving around, I stopped at every yard sale or thrift shop that I could find.
One of my favorites was an elderly, very frail older lady, who had a collection of succulents like I had never seen. Her yard sale was set up in her front yard and was there all summer long, so I stopped many times to talk to her and admire her collection of plants. I bought several, and I realized I had some that she did not, so I took one of my plants to her as a gift. She, in turn, gave me one of her plants.
It was a tall scraggly looking plant, and she said the name was Ezekiel‘s bones and that it would flower in the winter time. I have since heard it called dancing bones, but it’s botanical name, according to my Phone app is : Rhipsalis baccifera, or mistletoe cactus.
I keep it in the house all winter, and it gives me pretty yellow blooms, I put it in my greenhouse in the summertime, where it grows rather tall and sprawls all over. When fall is approaching I take cuttings off it and start another season’s worth of babies.
Every year when it blooms, I think about the lady who gave me the start. I never knew her name, but a part of her lives on in this little plant. I am grateful to have met her, 31 years ago.
Do you have memories of people with your plants?
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