The Embrace

 

My Dahlia flower’s gone! Where the Dahlia “Embrace” was, now is a hole in the ground.

     Someone took my flower! They not only cut out one flower or two, but they dug out and removed the whole plant! The crater in the ground is as big as the hole in my heart, from where I actually felt the twist and pain. The sadness exhales from my lungs, and turned into madness. This anger roared, but escaped into the air. It’s the first time, after the joys of harvesting, that I felt depressed enough not to go on marching the parade of the gardens.

     The community garden SPEC -- Society Promoting Environmental Conservation --is located quite close to the complex I live in.  I first learned about its function around March, and joined the volunteers without hesitation. The coordinator, Vicky, has got the landscapes of the garden all organized; it’s been divided into 12 plots: lettuces, potatoes, carrots, onions, pumpkin, spinach, peas, squash, corn… They have been seeding since early spring. Later, the younger plants like sun flowers, raspberries, blueberries, and tomatoes were planted along their companion plants. The most interesting plot, to me, was the herbs plot: lemon balms, chives, mints and so on. I always envy those green thumbs who grow their own herbs for their cooking, make a pot of fresh afternoon herbal tea, or just create the aroma for the sometimes too plain a room.

     Watering and weeding are mainly my jobs ever since I joined the team. It’s not complicated at all. I put very little effort into the garden yet the reward is relatively enormous. Not to mention, what the volunteers know about the vegetables (the culture, diseases, inclinations….) is the true genuine color of the knowledge to me.

     Even though we haven’t been working in the garden for 10 weeks yet, we were told that we would be able to start harvest! Yes, the peas were hanging all over the Tee-Pees; the corn were getting taller than a person, tomatoes were flowering eventually in every plot; and lettuces, oh we have had such a great success with lettuce that we probably won’t have to buy our own until end of the year.

     Overwhelmed by the joy of harvest, I started bringing all the plants I could to the SPEC garden: Solomon’s seal, Begonia, Hatcher, orange Daylilies….. I planted them among those vegetables. In addition, although already late, I purchased two excellent young award winning Dahlias: “Embrace” and “Alpine Diamond”, and planted them, purposely, one in the north side of the garden and one in the south side. Obviously, the one that received more sun grew into a much healthier plant – the guideline of “How to cultivate a good Dahlia” is quite true. I’ve been going to the community garden more frequently than the routine required, because the Dahlia flowers are, finally, about to bloom.

      Every time I went to the SPEC garden, I started checking the culture of those plants from the first plot -- I always checked from the first plot, although my heart has racing to the Dahlias. The new leaves of lettuces kept on coming regardless how frequently we harvested them; two over matured cabbages have been kept for their seeds; the Golden Sunset tomato had this juicy, orange yellowish color that’s nearly tangerine. Moving down to meet the Dahlias, my friends seemed also extremely happy to see me. They stretched their dark green leaves and, shyly, showed me their half-opened buds. I have nipped off their smaller buds to encourage the remaining buds to grow into larger and more glamorous flowers.

    Alpine Diamond is like a cute, pinkish lady whose single layer of petals open like an octagon diamond. Embrace is as wild as Beethoven’s hair just after his hair-perm. The salmon color pedals stick out so irregularly that it’s not a typical Dahlia at all. Actually, this is the reason I like this variety so much. I’ve been as exciting as a parent who is expecting her daughters’ first born. To tell you the truth, I love them both; however, I love Embrace a little bit more than the Alpine Diamond – but it wasn’t until I lost it that I realized this.

     Recalling to that very sad day – when I was walking closer to the garden, I could see the yellow and red tomatoes hanging among the vertebrate leaves. The wooden sign, which was as big as a wall, clearly indicated that this place was a volunteer working area and was for the function of demonstration and education. I approached to the first plot, and the second, the third…, there was something wrong. I turned my head back, sensing that omen. I saw nothing. Nothing! Then I saw it -- that hole in the ground.

     After checking all 12 plots, I was almost sure it wasn’t a joke. I won’t be able to “embrace” the Dahlia any more. I just stood there, as the sky got darker and darker, struggling with a hopeless wonder, “Maybe it’s a hide-and-seek game someone’s playing with me? Maybe my Embrace will show up any moment and embrace me?”

On my way home, I walked so reluctantly; my steps were as long, as heavy, as dark as my shadow. I thought about what Martin Luther King once said,“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” Yes, if the world would go to pieces, I would still pant my next Dahlia – as long as the world won’t take away my Dahlia flower right at the time when it’s blooming….