Crowe Garden Design - Bespoke Garden Design In Essex

Many years ago a small boy had his breakfast. There were fresh grapefruits and oranges on the table. Some days the grapefruits were pink and the oranges were red whilst on other days the grapefruits were ‘grapefruit’ and the oranges were ‘orange’. This was a domestic scene of little significance to the world at large.

Yet one morning the little boy collected the various pips set neatly to one side by those at the table. Flush with a sudden urge to grow, these pips were placed into small terracotta pots, four to a pot and an old saucer placed beneath. Up onto the window cill they went to be seen each morning at breakfast.

Amazingly germination occurred, the miracle of life laid before the young boy. Enthusiasm started to grow with the advancement of the seedlings. The realisation that not all survived was met with a stoic resolve to labour attention on the strongest. So gradually over time a single strong specimen rose up out of its pot.

Each year it was potted on, each year it grew larger, spending the colder months on the boy’s bedroom window cill and the summer outside amongst the roses. As time passed this ritual extended to being planted in the ground during the summer.

The boy grew into a young man, with a change in priorities, the plant received less attention and care, a paternal eye was called in. Still the plant grew, not by much but it survived. Travels and departures meant that the plant was left at home, for years. Scale insect, a sticky dripping mess caused consternation. Others were called upon to provide the care.

 

Now this plant has nearly reached forty, it is not a stunning spectacle or a sickly stick, but it is a life, a continuous thread of life through life. A simple question remains though. Is it a grapefruit or an orange? Unfortunately nobody thought to label the pots when the seeds were planted all those years ago and whilst it would not be too difficult to ascertain the joy is in the unknown.