• Weight: 282
• BP: 130/82

Relax, it’s not that sort of thing.  puppy is referring to the life and death cycle of perennial flowers.  Specifically marigolds.

puppy has had marigolds in his personal garden ever since he was little.  When puppy was a lot younger, his mother was a member of the local Garden Club, a group that met in the basement of the local Town Hall, and even today puppy is unsure of what all the women in the group did.  puppy remembers his mother going, and at one time there was a Junior Garden Club, and puppy learned a little about flowers, planting and how to keep plants from dying.  When puppy was about 6 or 7, his mother suggested planting flowers around the base of a tree that had been planted in the front yard of his house.  A red maple
(puppy’s older brother was given a green maple at about the same time) that to this day still survives at puppy’s boyhood home.  puppy, remembering what he did about marigolds, and just personally liking them, chose several different types and planted them around the base of the maple.  They were easy to take care of, and they bloomed nicely all summer long.  Every year after that the tradition continued, puppy would get marigolds after Memorial Day, plant them around the base of the tree, and come fall, they would get frost killed, then pulled from the ground and tossed on the compost pile.  The cycle would begin again the next year.

puppy took the tradition with him wherever he has gone.  Marigolds have been planted in all the different gardens of all the different places he’s lived, and he will probably continue to do it when he’s living with his Miss wherever she and he end up.  Nothing wrong with having a tradition, and certainly they flourish well no matter where you plant them.  puppy has often said that marigolds are almost idiot proof, they grow in good soil, poor soil, sandy soil and so on.  About the only thing one needs to remember is to keep them in good sun, water them enough and deadhead them regularly, so the new buds come along and replace the ones that die off.  Not too tricky!

Getting back to the topic, the cycle of life and death.  puppy planted the marigolds on Jun 15 after he got them from the local garden center.  The day before yesterday, the weather report said that it was likely to be a killing frost overnight, so if one had perennials, and wished to protect/keep them a little while longer, it would be best to cover them.  puppy decided it was time to let them go, and took pictures of the planter to memorialize them.  What a difference 4 months make!  To go from one extreme to the other.  And then finally letting them go.  Amazing.