I finally learned how to help my hardy mum thrive.
I realized a huge mistake: hardy didn’t mean that it didn’t need water.
Every autumn, I think that hardy mum means you can ignore the poor plant. After all, I know how to define words: hardy means robust and capable of enduring the most difficult conditions.
So every autumn, I ignore the mum and totally forget to water it.
But this year, my father-in-law comments that my mum needs water.
“How much?” I say, thinking to myself that a hardy mum doesn’t need much.
“A lot. Every day. Risk too much instead of too little.”
Every day? Hardy, apparently, doesn’t mean no water.
(Strength, I think, doesn’t mean I don’t need Living Water each new day.)
So I tiptoe out to the front porch every morning and pour a glass of water into my hardy mum.
And I’ve never had a better, brighter, larger mum in all these years.