I always marveled at my Dad’s efforts to grow an unlikely fruit in his kitchen and, when summer came, out on the patio.
He’d gotten it into his head that pineapples needn’t grow only in Hawaii. The Northeast would do just fine. And so I watched him haul his 50 lb pineapple plant, that he’d started from his own pineapple leftovers, in and out of the house, season by season, year after year. At some point, he harvested a single pineapple from the endeavor and called it a juicy success.
Today, my Dad has a greenhouse in Tennessee. A life dream come true, he grows lemon and lime trees, bananas and mangoes in what would otherwise be an inhospitable climate.
Maybe it was my Dad who inspired me to haul my own little lemon tree from the sunshine in the hall to the sunshine in the living room, day after day, year after year. I called it a juicy success when I got one lemon. The year we got a bumper crop of two lemons was extra cause for celebration.
My little lemon tree finally gave up on the bargain. I haven’t replaced her. But I do dream of unlikely fruits growing in my Northeastern home.
Try It: Greenhouse of Poems
What do you wish you could grow in a greenhouse? Put your greenhouse dreams in a poem. Or, pretend your greenhouse solely grows poems. What kind of poems will you raise? How will they thrive? Who will your greenhouse poems delight or feed?
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.
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Katie Spivey Brewster says
Laura,
Your post reminded me of the orange tree sapling my parents brought home to NC from FL decades ago. After living in our house while my siblings and I grew up, my oldest sister adopted it. Alas, there was no bumper crop, but just the sight of it made us think of the Sunshine State. So much so, in fact, that two brothers have since moved to Florida.
small citrus sapling
greenhouse-less, still you grew
calling us southward
In February the five of us gathered in Florida to celebrate one brother’s 70th birthday. The highlight for me was all of us visiting Bok Tower & Gardens in Lake Wales. Our parents had been there on a few of their annual winter trips to Florida. Just knowing that we were walking along paths they had walked and seeing and hearing the beauty they had shared made us grateful and happy.
Now, for a haiku homage to your dad’s and your citrus growing:
unlikely fruit trees
two tenacious gardeners
yield sweet bumper crops
bethany r. says
“calling us southward”
Sweet poems, Katie 🙂
L.L. Barkat says
Katie, this is such a dear memory (and wonderfully told).
Thank you for the tenacious gardeners poem. So much in three little lines!
I’d love to hear more about the Bok Tower & Gardens in Lake Wales. I’m not familiar (and it sounds enchanting).
Katie Spivey Brewster says
Thank you, Laura.
Here is some background on Bok Tower & Gardens:
On the side of the marble tower that houses the carillon is this inscription:
“This singing tower with its adjacent sanctuary was dedicated and presented for visitation to the American people by Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States, February the first, 1929.”
When Edward Bok, came to America as a boy in 1869, his grandmother gave him this charge: “Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it.”
He certainly fulfilled those words from his grandmother by creating this sanctuary for birds and people in Lake Wales, Florida. He hired Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. to transform Iron Mountain (the highest point in the state) from a sandy hill of pines and palmettos into a sanctuary that would “touch the soul with its beauty and quiet.”
Hope you are someday able to visit this wonderful place.