Grow Toward The Light

Day 118: Remember those French pussywillows from January 26th? They're shedding their catkins like crazy and putting on little green leaves to replace them, and a few days ago, I noticed something which didn't look at all like a lichen or a piece of moss. It was too tiny to tell for sure, but the following morning when I looked at the jar where it was sitting in my sunny kitchen window, it had developed into an obvious white root approximately a quarter of an inch long. On the next morning, it had grown to almost an inch and had lots of company. Yes, every twig picked from that broken branch has now put on a handsome collection of roots.

These starts will live in water (refreshed at least every other day) until all danger of frost is past. Then I will plant them in gallon pots sunk in the ground, and there they will remain for a year, the root systems confined. The following spring, they'll be transplanted to various spots in the yard and hopefully some day before I'm too old to appreciate them, I will have my own French pussywillow bush budding out in January.