“Let Love Grow.”
That was what the green paper leaf said, attached to a small baby food jar full of wildflower seeds. I thought, “I wish I thought up something so cute to hand out at my wedding.” As soon as the snow melted for the year, I would plant them in a big fancy pot, and they would grow on my deck, along with my tea roses, ivy, and avocado trees. I kept the little jar of seeds with my gardening tools to wait for spring.

Spring never did show up that year until July. By then, I was heavily involved with other things. Camp Grandma for one. We planted fast-growing flowers like sunflowers because the girls were only with me for a week. My plans to start seedlings in the winter fizzled out due to unforeseen events. I wanted to be able to take the jar of seeds and scatter them willy-nilly around the front of the house. I even had a great flower bed I could use. Then hubby reminded me that anything planted there would be critter food – deer, bears, raccoons, turkeys, and who-knows-what-else would gobble up my flowers. Okay – next year for sure….

Fast forward (nearly a decade) to 2025. I was packing up my weeding tools, and guess what I found? A baby food jar, with a green leaf!

The label was dirty and faded, but still legible. Even the small font was readable, “Melvin & Heidi 02-28-16.”

2016! My heart sank. There was no way I would be able to open that jar. Even after hot water, tapping with a knife, rubber bands, and dishwashing gloves to help me grip the thing, nothing got it loose. Then hubby said, “Let me take it into the shop, I think I have something that will work…” He returned with an open jar of flower seeds. Yeah!

I planted a 3rd of the jar into a large pot on May 7th.
Now it is May 17th, and if you look closely at the soil in the pot, you can see tiny green sprouts.

I was not expecting this at all. Oh sure, I was hoping the seeds still had life in them. I imagined how fun it would be to send a photo to Melvin and Heidi and tell them the story.

It looks like I will be doing just that. I will wait until the sprouts grow and mature into definite plants. And pray that I don’t kill them before that.

Stay tuned for more tales from the garden…