A Gardening Life (All questions heard at a garden center.)
“Do you have low-biscus? I don’t have room for high.”
He asked me so sincerely that I didn’t bat an eye.
“The tag says ‘plant in full sun’” another customer said
“But I want to plant today, though the clouds are overhead.”
I did not laugh or snicker or otherwise make merry
Even when the next in line asked for a tree: Maraschino Cherry.
“Are annuals planted every year or is this how they return?”
“Must I plant a perennial perennially?” They’re confusing terms to learn.
“We eat tomatoes as a vegetable, but now you say it’s fruit.”
And “Can I buy this lovely daisy plant without the dirt and root?”
“Does a diet ‘thin out’ seedlings, and does slimming help them grow?”
“Is ‘hardening off’ like tough love?” they’d really like to know.
You see gardening is a language and it’s just part of the bargain,
That not everyone is up to speed with horticultural jargon.
Put all us garden lovers with those versed in economics
And our illiteracy with finance would have them laughing at us comics.
For every human interest be it basketball to bingo,
Or cooking, stocks, and growing plants…each has a special lingo.
So if you don’t know gardener’s Latin don’t feel bad, you’re not alone
Just remember every subject has a language of its own.
We did have Hibiscus, and found one that was short so the customer was happy, even if it wasn't called Lowbiscus.
