Cruel and Unusual Gardening or How to Threaten Your Plants into Flourishing
Nicola Slade is a fab writer of histories and mysteries, and has a wonderful website and blog. You must take a look.
Nicola Slade's Winchester Mysteries
The first Terry Pratchett novel I read was ‘Good Omens’ – the book about the Apocalypse, which he wrote with Neil Gaiman. I was very taken with the way the demon Crowley kept his indoor plants healthy and flourishing. He threatened them!
Any plant that failed to thrive would be shown to all the others as an awful warning and taken out of the house. An hour or so later Crowley would return with an empty flower pot that would be left prominently on show. As the book says, ‘The plants were the most luxurious, verdant, and beautiful in London. And the most terrified.’
Not having demonic powers I can’t claim that my house plants are fabulous but they do live under threat. When they’re planted, fed or watered – or more often when the dead leaves are picked off – I have a mantra that I use…
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Great post. Thanks for sharing, Jane. It’s made me keen to read both Good Omens and one of Nicola’s Winchester Mysteries!
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I am sure she will be thrilled. Thanks Janice. 🙂
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I had a plant in my previous home which refused to flower, so I threatened it that if it didn’t flower the following year, I would cut it down. The next year it was full of gorgeous blossoms. Who says they don’t understand !
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Oh Tina they do understand and hear. I used to always talk to my plants. Well done.
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