This week I felt like a superhero in my backyard. In May, I purchased a hanging basket from a friend who works at a garden center and the vine grew like mad. When I first brought it home, it had a pretty, pink bloom, but only bloomed that one time. It didn’t take long to figure out that it loved to grow and take up space.
I didn’t like that.
So, this morning it met the trashcan. I’ve never thrown away a healthy plant, but have discarded my fair share of dead ones over the years, so it kind of felt like plant murder. There’s a sign hanging on my garden shed that says, “Gardening. Because murder is wrong”, but in this case it felt right.
A Pride of Barbados that I planted earlier this year is doing very well, but I haven’t been able to grow one successfully until this year. It was purchased from a nursery after the spring season, but was planted in a little cup of dirt, so tiny, it was challenging to leave it alone and still keep an eye on it. It outgrew the cup of dirt and I placed it in a planter that receives the morning light.
Standing in the planter, it’s almost as tall as me now, but admiring it’s size reminded me of when I transplanted it, there were two trees in the cup of dirt. Pulling back the foliage, there at the very bottom was the second tree. It was suffocated by the other tree without the chance to grow! Very carefully, I dug it up and placed it in it’s own pot.
It will grow into it’s own version.
It felt like starting over with this little guy being the same size as when I first purchased it, but I’m just grateful to have remembered. Sometimes we have to be alone to grow into who God created us to be and not be overshadowed by other people, or our surroundings. I sat it in between two Oakleaf Hydrangea trees, so it can be inspired to grow in grace.
Inbarbsworld 
Share you thoughts.