A story to share with you....

I wanted to share a story with you. Growing up we lived in a row home. One side of our house was attached to a long row of homes. On the other was an alley. Our backyard was an OK size, but 95% cement. We had a little garden that was on the side, that went the length of the yard. We got so many awesome tomatoes and other veggies, and entirely too many green beans (when you are a kid, I would love to have them now!) Across the back of the yard we planted watermelon. When we were still pretty young we would swing on one of those old Flexible Flyer metal swing sets. Since it was an all cement yard, when we would swing too high it would lift off of the ground! And it was AWESOME! On the side of the house outside next to the alley we had bricks. I hated this part. I can't tell you how many long hot summer days we had to sit out there and pull all of the weeds out of between the bricks. I hated pulling weeds. I STILL hate pulling weeds! It was there that I vowed I wouldn't pull weeds when I was an adult! And if you were to look in my yard now....well like I said I hate weeds. So anyway along our fence my mom planted Four O'clocks. Among the four O'clocks were Gladiolas. I loved seeing the Gladiolas blooming. To me it meant summer was actually here! I loved all of the colors that they bloomed. We also had a little flower bed not very big, but she had Columbine growing. I also loved these. I liked how they looked like little trumpets growing. She also had an Easter Lily. But it was a little confused, as it always bloomed late in the Spring Early summer.So when I started dating David, 10 years ago, he invited me to his house. Although it was February when I first visited, I could see it needed some work in the floral department. So that first spring we put in two different flower gardens in the front. The smaller one we pulled out the half dead bushes that were there. We tried a few different things. In the larger one we planted what I knew, Gladiolus and Four O'Clocks. The four O’clocks have come and gone. He didn't like how when it rained, they fell into the front lawn and he had to move them to mow. But we never saw any signs of the Gladiolus. Last year, 8 years after I planted them, we got some green leaves. This year after 9 years of them being in the flower bed, we have two plants growing. And guess what?????? 9 years after planting we have a bloom!!!!!!!!