Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow.....

I heard a story once about some lotus seeds that germinated after laying dormant for 2000 years. I think they were in the La Brea tar pits or someplace like that. I also heard that somebody found some Artic lupine seeds in a frozen lemming burrow (the burrow was frozen, not the lemming) that were supposedly 10,000 years old, and they turned into little Artic lupine sprouts.

I thought about this today while I was cleaning up my workshop, and ran across an envelope of old seeds. When we moved into our home 25 years ago, I got some Four O'clock seeds from my Mom. Four O'clocks are flowers whose blooms open in the afternoon, supposedly about four o'clock. The seeds came from the flowers that came from the seeds that came from the flowers that my Grandmother used to have in her flower beds.

I planted them the first year, but what with the government messing around with time zones and changing times from one state to another a couple of times a year, they never really got into the rhythm of opening on a regular schedule, and certainly not at 4:00. But, I thought I'd give them another chance, so after the first frost, I gathered up some seeds, put them in an envelope marked "Grandma Bowman's 4 O'clocks", and put them up in the shop for safe keeping.

They have been laying in there ever since. Sorry Grandma. But I'm going give them another try this year if they're not to old, and hopefully I can give some of the seeds next fall to your great-grandchildren an great-great-grandchildren.

But we might have to call them Six O'clocks now, with Daylight Savings time and all.

Grandma Bowman, me and my brother.