Since I try not to use words on Wordless Wed,
I thought today you might want to know
some details about Aunt Ethel.
Way back
when I was a teenage
we visited Uncle Noel and Aunt Ethel
in Onarga, Illinois.
Aunt Ethel gave my Mother a piece
of her beautiful Christmas Cactus.
No telling its age.
Back home in Glasgow, KY
Mother planted the pieces in a large
container of dirt.
It thrived and multiplied.
I don't remember it blooming,
because at that age
I had more important things on my mind.
The big plant moved to town
when my parents left the farm.
When Mother passed away in 2014,
I grabbed the beautiful, bushy, healthy plant
and brought it to Lexington with me.
I still don't recall it having ever bloomed.
Just green.
That's how I thought a Christmas Cactus
was supposed to look.
It stayed well for a couple of years,
until one year
I thought I had the brilliant idea
to set it under a tree
where the occasional rains
would water it for me.
BIG MISTAKE.
I almost drowned it.
I thought I had killed it!
The container didn't have drain holes,
because Mother kept it in the house.
I poured water out of that container,
and kept pouring.
A few days later,
some pieces literally
fell out of the pot with no roots attached.
The roots were rotting.
I panicked
and pulled some still healthy pieces out
with their roots
and let them dry.
I dumped the old dirt
and got a new bag.
I thought I'd start dry again.
I stuck the pieces in the dirt
like my Mother had originally done.
In sunlight with occasional water,
Aunt Ethel started reviving.
She grew more pieces over the years.
Aunt Ethel and I moved again,
north of Lexington.
So I think she can be considered a traveler.
A few pieces have grown.
As you can see,
she seeked out the sunlight across another pot.
For a while,
I think she actually was mourning with me
over Mr. G.
She sits next to the last flowers that
Mr. G gave me.
daughter gave me for Mother's Day back in 2020
Aunt Ethel
can see Mr. G the Poinsettia
still in full bloom to this day.
but I love them for their
thoughts & memories.
So this year finally
My cousin got a piece of a Cactus
from our Uncle Arnold.
What do you think the name of her plant is?
I must say
I think
Uncle Arnold is thriving a lot more than Aunt Ethel.
I enjoyed reading the story of Aunt Ethel - she's a treasure indeed. A little story for you - my mother loved plants and flowers but NOT anything white (to her they were funeral flowers). My DH always got her flowers or a plant at Christmas and one year he bought her a white Christmas cactus (knowing full well she would hate it). She thanked him and then set about doing her best to kill it. The silly thing absolutely refused to die, no matter what, and every year I'd get a phone call telling me that 'the damned plant was blooming again' (her words). The only plant I kept of hers was that one...and guess what...it died promptly.
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