My Dad is a really Green fingered chap, he worked on a farm when he was young, and I don't think he would disagree with me if I said his "happy place" is when he's outside. As a small child I would happily follow him up and down the garden, as he pointed out various flowers and where/how to plant them. I, however, have NOT inherited his green thumb, I can barely keep a cactus alive that my partner and I got as a moving-in present when we moved into our current rental. In fact, when I was a child, my then-next-door neighbour got so tired of me trying and failing to help her look after her plants that she once bought me a dancing mechanical sunflower complete with rock star-style sunglasses and a guitar pinned to its leaves, her intuition was indeed correct, it was much more my speed and live a happy, healthy life in my bedroom for many glorious dancing years!
An unlikely part of helping to run a restaurant is having to maintain the various plants and fauna that often adorn parts of both the interior and exterior of the building. In the very first place I worked there was a stunning blossom tree outside, the kind that lives in parts of Japan, where the world-famous Cherry Blossoms attract millions of visitors a year. I believe they are known as "Sakura" and according to the article by Ishaan Tharoor in Washington Post they may actually have originated in China. Either way, a glorious blossom tree somehow made it to the Restaurant where I worked at the time, and as beautiful as they are when they shed their blossoms, they are a nightmare. We always prided ourselves on an immaculate exterior building... The Blossom tree however was very much my nemesis, it did not seem to matter how many times I trundled out in wind or rain the blossoms never seemed to go away for a good few weeks every year. Just when I had finally finished sweeping to open the doors in the morning, the wind would gently blow and at least a hundred more would sprinkle down and ruin my hard work. I swear if this tree was a cartoon, it would be laughing at me. Not only did the blossoms cover everything in sight outside, but whenever anyone entered or exited the building a snowstorm-like flurry of blossom leaves would sweep in and immediately disperse in all directions inside.
I returned to my original place of work this spring just for old time's sake and I paused and looked at the tree that I can now admire; seeing as I am no longer the one sweeping the blossoms from beneath it or the restaurant's front door!
You may think I would fare better with potted plants, often bought fully grown from Garden Centres and all you have to do is water them from time to time... In all the places I have worked there is always one of every outdoor table... Think again! Potted plants seem to be some type of Yin and yang that I really just haven't mastered. I commit two sins when trying to maintain these according to a bereft gardener who once stood in dismay at the work he had done a few weeks earlier. I either am too busy to water them at all and one day they are fresh and new, and the next they are burnt to a literal crisp, as in one touch reduced the entire plant to ashes, or I overcompensate for my neglect and over water them... This apparently according to the gardener can lead them to rot in their pots - who knew? Definitely not me. Either way, I simply can't seem to win when it comes to plants, thank goodness I seem to be better at taking care of pets, but perhaps that's for a future blog post.
The above stories however will make this one all the more impressive. Not long before I left my then boss, not Boss Man but the one that replaced him decided to buy some miniature sunflowers near the front entrance of the restaurant. This time I was determined that they were not going to die, I lovingly watered these little sunflowers every few days, not too often, not too little... I protected them from children as they swiped at the pots trying to grab them, I even put them out in the winter sun a few times and on more than one occasion shooed a few four-legged friends away from trying to water them themselves. These little beauties I had adopted for my own were doing great! I was so proud! One day during a particularly heated
discussion with a colleague about the division of labour I pointed out that I was the ONLY PERSON who ever gave the flipping sunflowers the time of day! "Why am I the only one who ever waters the flipping sunflowers!?" I asked in a proud and confident tone, only for Cellar man as I will call him, named because he was employed as a bar manager and had years of experience of managing cellars, and new boss man to emphatically inform me that I was indeed the only one putting extra time and effort into watering and caring for the sunflowers, because the sunflowers were, in fact, fake. Yes folks, I had lovingly watered, taken outside for sunlight, and indeed taken time after hours to care for a small group of fake sunflowers... It really was too good to be true, I was not a sudden flower whizz... I was dumbfounded and we all laugh at this day at my mistake, with both "Cellar Man" and New Boss man calling "Hey, how are the sunflowers?" whenever they see me.
Things I learned from these Experiences:
I was not born with green fingers or even a green thumb, much to the despair of my father.
Blossom Trees - while very beautiful are an absolute pain in the neck when you're the one having to sweep up the blossoms.
Pride, definitely comes before a fall.
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