Someone posted a great video to the Facebook page for our local garden club.  It clearly showed how to cut back annuals, especially those in pots.  “Don’t worry about clipping off some.  It encourages new and healthy growth,” the expert enthused.

She convinced me:  my container gardens needed some perking up.  OK, if I’m being completely honest, I would have to call them “rather bad.”  But here was my chance to bring them back again, especially since I had the time this summer. 

I grabbed the clippers and chopped away, just as she showed on Youtube.  I allowed myself no hesitation, no wishy-washy concerns that normally stopped me.  Within a short hour, everything was trimmed back. 

But very few flowers showed their pretty, colorful faces.  I consoled myself with remembering how bedraggled they all looked. 

I have been watching for almost three weeks now.  I looked for signs of blooms coming—because there sure was no cheerful color to be seen from afar.  Every day, it has been the same story.

I started to look at the mum order on my desk, ready to rip out everything I had trimmed.  I would replace them all with bright mums—even if I don’t want to welcome fall yet.  

But today, I see little tiny flowers coming.  Perhaps the woman in the video was not wrong! A silver lining yet again—a new skill learned with this gift of time. (Although, I think I’ll try to spread out my trimming back next year, see if it might be a little less painful!)