“Flower It Up.” That’s what Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame coach Chick Childress used to tell us after we talked to him for a story. “Flower It Up.” Make it sound better than what I just said. Do some work for a change.
Flower it up.
Flowering it up takes a little extra effort, but it’s worth it. There are 1,600 azaleas on the par-5 13th at Augusta National Golf Club; they could have probably gotten by with 1,300 or 1,400, don’t you think. The name of the hole is Azalea, naturally.
You don’t have to go all Augusta National on us, but a flower here and there adds something. It’s alive. It needs caring for. But it gives back to you. The payback’s worth it.
I am with some guys in a nice townhouse in Augusta this week. The nice person who is loaning it to us is named Andrea. We have never met but I feel I know her a little by the Bible verses both on the icebox and framed here and there and by the neat and clean way she keeps her place and by the nice floral touches she’s added.
The back yard is tiny—it’s a townhouse—but cozy is a better word, and welcoming. There are three little “bathtub” flower holders—think of pig feed troughs—by the back fence, and they hold dianthus, red and pink and white. On the left, down the other fence that goes back to the house, are four loropetalum shrubs, deep ruby and two-feet high. Then along the wall, two knockout roses flank the AC unit, and halfway around it is lattice that has honeysuckle growing on it. Under the patio, a Boston fern sits on a table and a couple of red geraniums are potted, one by the back door and two by the fence door.
Beyond the back yard is the hill you see pictured early in the morning—even God flowered it up with these tall Georgia pines—and over the top of the hill is the rear of the Masters free parking, which is the size of a subdivision.
In the front is some Indian Hawthorn, low baby shrups. There are a couple more knockouts planted, all very neat in the straw, and two more potted geraniums.
Andrea didn’t have to flower it up, but she did, and it does some good to anyone in the house or anyone who drives by and looks. To all of you who do that, thank you. To all of you who don’t, try a plant or two, one pretty and easy to care for. You’ll enjoy it; you’ll see a difference.
You might even send me roses.
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