digging holes, at a loss....

I have been digging holes - but not to actually plant things in.

If you look at this crazy activity from a certain perspective, it could be considered to be remarkably generous  - but is, in fact, whatever the opposite of 'practical' must be. Not one to tell tales on myself - I will nonetheless confess to foolish behavior. I would like to add the disclaimer that it was unintentional, though admittedly not thoroughly considered.

When out walking around in the 'yard' that is really mostly weedy, wooded area, looking for signs of spring out in the leaf litter where I have planted hundreds of spring bloomers in recent years - I decided to advertise spider lily plants for sale. These are bulb plants that produce bright red blooms in the early fall: commonly known as surprise lilies since you usually forget where you put them in the ground, and they pop out of the mulch, seemingly overnight with unexpected color on tall stalks before the plant begins to put out foliage -giving you a pleasant 'surprise' when the blooms suddenly open up. With delicate petals that spread open to look like the extended legs of a spider. The Latin name is lycoris radiata if you want to google that...

All the hundreds of plants I have came from  responding to advertisements in the GA. Ag. dept. Farmer's Market Bulletin over twenty years ago. I'd see offers for bulbs from people in places like Dewy Rose, Ball Ground and Tallapoosa: some places that were no more than a post office at the time, and might not even exist today. I could envision little weathered, stooped, gritty, hard-working, gray-haired women, in aprons, (maybe even long calico dresses and bonnets!) having spent their entire lives on farms, digging up the bulbs they advertised, squirreling away 'pin money'.

 I probably ordered and planted a hundred or more bulbs twenty or more years ago. And back in the fall, I dug and gave dozens to my daughters,delivered and transplanted them as 'children' of the original bulbs in Atlanta and TN.  I must have mailed off close to two hundred in the past week or so: more generations from the originals that have multiplied undisturbed underground over the years.

The business I transacted with the little hard working women scrabbling on farms many years ago was back in the time when you could mail a letter for pennies, and send a package across the state for a couple of dollars. But I did not factor the cost of getting the produce/product delivered into the advertisement I put in the Market Bulletin. So when people have started sending me their checks  to order a dozen of the bulbs that have multiplied so generously all around my house: I have gone in the hole to ship them.

The first couple of orders were for two dozen, so the cost of the bulbs ($5 each) plus postage ($1) was  not so terribly painful. But when I got orders from Augusta and Savannah from people who remembered them from childhood, but only wanted one dozen: I still had to pay over $6 to mail the box of bulbs. After a couple of trips to the post office where the clerk wanted more than the check was made out for, I raised my price dramatically... or maybe not: changed to $9 for eighteen bulbs, plus more to ship, when I made an 'emergency' call to the Ag. dept office in Atlanta, in hopes that my digging effort would be more than just exercise/therapy. I think putting them in envelopes and not having to pay for shipping a corrugated box might help.But then again, with the way the post office is raising prices, while going bankrupt: maybe not...

I did take a box with five dozen to FedEx to see if that would be better, and they wanted double the price of what the USPS would charge to deliver a box across the state - so there is more gas gone with three trips to get that box on the way to Augusta.

But now that I ponder the whole scenario, I think how seeing those colorful blooms pop up in the fall and say 'surprise' never fails to make me smile. And realize sharing that is not an unreasonable price to pay for passing along the bulbs to people who call from little towns all over the state. Those fellow plant lovers read the Market Bulletin and decide they want a little of that back. So they call to share memories, history of growing up in other places/times across Georgia, and request a delivery of smiles. Cheap at Any Price.