The xylem and phloem cells produced by the fusiform initials have their long axes oriented vertically and make up what is known as the axial system of the secondary vascular tissue. The ray initials produce horizontally oriented ray cells, which form the vascular rays or radial system. Composed largely of parenchyma cells, the vascular rays are variable in length.
GOTCHA!
The science behind gardening is fascinating, and I’m trying to understand it, but sometimes gardeners just want to have fun.
The other night, I ran into a website posting a collection of gardening memes. A meme is an image or a piece of text, often humorous, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users.
Scrolling through those memes was like eating Extra-Crunchy Cheetos and not being able to stop myself until the whole party-size bag was gone.
A search of one website led to another. And another. And another. Once you try them, gardening memes are irresistible.
Let’s take a week off from serious gardening concerns and have some fun instead. Besides, there is more wisdom in these little nuggets than in a year’s worth of my columns. Here are a few of my favorites:
“Gardening season begins January 1 and ends December 31.”
“One minute you’re young, hip and carefree and the next minute you’re photographing vegetables in your garden.”
“Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy plants. Which is the same thing.”
“It’s not hoarding if its plants.”
“You know that tingly feeling you get when you walk into a nursery? It’s your common sense leaving your body.”
“Plants are the new pets.”
“If you are not killing plants, you are not really stretching yourself as a gardener.” — J.C. Raulston
“You know you’re a serious gardener when your neighbors don’t recognize your face because that’s usually not the end they see.”
“Some people want a big house, designer clothes and an expensive car. Others create a garden where they can escape those people.”
“Gardening is cheaper than therapy, and you get tomatoes.”
“Gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it.”
“Hey girl, let’s spread all those seed catalogs you get in the mail all over the bed and just circle stuff we want, all night long……..”
“Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a woman to garden and the whole neighborhood eats zucchini all summer.”
“Housework is for people who don’t know how to garden.”
“Growing your own tomatoes is the best way to devote 3 months of your life to saving $2.17.”
“Always plant trees so the prevailing winds blow the autumn leaves next door.”
“School is important but gardening is importanter.”
“You can bury any number of headaches in a garden.” — Charles Barnard
“I’m in no rush for spring”, said no gardener ever
“A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.” — Mary Sarton
“There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.”
“When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.” — Minnie Aumonier
“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” — Dalai Lama
“Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.” — A.A. Milne
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.”
“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago.”
“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden.” — Thomas Jefferson
“I want it said of me by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.” — Abraham Lincoln
“Life begins the day you start a garden.” — Chinese proverb
“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.” — May Sarton
“A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.” — Gertrude Jekyll
“Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized.” — Allan Armitage
“Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.” — Alfred Austin
“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.” — Claude Monet
“Remember that children, marriages and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.” — H. Jackson Brown Jr.
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Plants want to grow. They are on your side as long as you are reasonably sensible.” — Anne Wareham
• Carol Barany and her husband, John, found paradise on 1 1/3 acres just west of Franklin Park, where they raised three children and became Master Gardeners. Contact her at florabundance14@gmail.com.