Love growing at the garden centre
The petals, once glorious in scent and hue, were now blackened and shrivelled so he ruthlessly snipped them the decaying flowers off with his second hand secateurs, carefully gathering the flower heads up before adding them to the compost bin to continue their journey through the endless cycle of death and life, bringing succour to a new generation of flowers next season.
The roses were always one of the best sellers in his garden centre so it was unusual to see some bushes still here until they needed pruning to bring them back to their former beauty. He knew that leaving the old petals there would result in the strength of the plant going into producting hips instead of new flowers.
He thought this was a metaphor for his friendship with Ruth, who was the head cashier. She was not really what is usually considered a beauty but Kevin could see her inner beauty shining out when she talked about her love for the plants that she sold every day. She thought of herself as an adoption agency because they had been nurtured from cuttings in the garden centre until they grew to adulthood, ready to be found a good home with a kind family. She would refuse to sell a plant to customers if they did not meet with her approval, it was easy to find an excuse. Perhaps hint at greenfly infestation ot mention a possibility of an infectious mould. That was usually enough to protect one of her precious plants from a sad and abusive future.
She liked Kevin but kept her distance because he was her boss and she didn’t want her colleagues at the centre to think she was trying to take advantage of their friendship to advance her career. She didn’t realise that they all wished they would get together for they were clearly made for each other with their mutual love of plants and flowers, each lusting after growing strong, healthy plants in the fertile,nutricious soil.
There was a query on a price for the japanese maples so Ruth went to find Kevin until she tracked him down at the compost area and asked him about the right price.
‘Whatever price you think is right is fine with me, Ruth,’ he said. ‘You know I trust you completely’
Ruth blushed a little and thought how lovely he was, how he took care of the roses, even when they were blacked and dying. She went back to the till and sold the maples at a premium, they were too beautiful to be allowed to go cheaply.
She day dreamed of Kevin working at the compost and became determined that she would be the good home that he would go to. What was good enough for the plants was certainly good enough for Kevin.
She got one of her assistants to stand in for her and went to find him again.
‘I don’t want our friendship to schrivel and die like those rose petals,’ she said, ‘ I want us to nurture it so that it flourishes and perhaps grows into love’ She blushed again when he said,
‘Yes, no compost bin for us.’
They joined hands and walked off into their growing future together in the garden centre.
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