Hydrangea with a side of plumosa
Earlier this week I filled a vase with flowers in lovely shades of pink. I added sprigs of Asparagus Fern ‘plumosa’ for a light, feathery touch
In my apartment-dwelling days, I did most of my decorating with live plants, including these ferns. My Asparagus Plumosa started out as two, seventy-nine cent house plants. They lived on a lace-covered trunk next to my bed in Campbell, until they started to outgrow their pots. The plants came with me from Campbell to San Jose and eventually Fremont, then back to San Jose.
When we bought this house in 1996 my tiny ferns were in a pot too big to lift alone. By then the thorns were mighty fierce. It would be a challenge to transplant. I let it be for a few more years, but the sides of the large, plastic pot started to crack. Worried that the plant would die with so little leg room, Mike maneuvered the pot, split the sides and planted the fern where in now resides. The roots were happy to be free from that pot, and the fern lives on.
History of Ferns
I wish I had pictures of my traveling fern in those early days. Do you ever wonder how we managed life before digital? Back when film was at a premium, and you had to pay to develop photographs, you chose your subject wisely. Digital photography is liberating.
Plumosa growing strong since 1988
Lovely new growth
Lindy-Lu under the fern.
Thank you, Boomdee for your July 15th comment. It inspired this post.
Gardening Nirvana 
Some of my old photos were worn out already.. 😦
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Digital has changed the way we think using and creating images. But storing so many images can now be the problem.
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I recently started storing things to the cloud, so I have digital images in multiple places: my blog, Facebook, Google and on my hard drive. Crazy, eh?
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A beautiful fern! Kudos to you for keeping it going for so long! I have managed to almost kill my historic spider plant that has lived with me since 1992 and which my daughter, highly alarmed, just today stepped in to try and save …………… bad mumma!! I’ve lost my touch 😦
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Oh, ha. Thanks for the shout out Alys! I should have known you can grow it in your back yard 😀 California weather is so accommodating. Such a fun look back at the life of your fern. Talk about well loved. I just read Pauline’s message and me too. I’m the pits with house plants. I remember the photo you shared for your apartment garden. It took my breath away. You’d have to be living right in an atrium here to even get close to anything like that. Little Mr C F looks like full tilt there, so cute. Hope they’re having a great summer holiday so far. xoxoxo
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Thank you, Sweetie. Since blogging and reading other stories from around the world, I realize how good a gardener has it living in these part of the world. I try to appreciate it every single day.
I was up at 4 today so I got out there early and pulled out dried leaves and the smallest of the compost tomatoes. The plant produced the most perfect looking red tomatoes with absolutely no flavor! Clearly that volunteer was not an heirloom. Meanwhile, the heirloom tomatoes are growing like mad. I eat them like candy: they are so juicy and sweet.
Thanks as always for your good cheer.
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