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Eleanor Perenyi Books

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“Sooner or later every gardener must face the fact that certain things are going to die on him. It is a temptation to be anthropomorphic about plants, to suspect they do it to annoy. One knows, after all, that they lead lives of their own: plant the lily bulb in the center of the bed and watch it come up under a brick near the edge; pull up a sick little bush and throw it on the compost heap, and ten to one, it will obstinately revive. Usually, though, gardening failures, like airplane crashes, are the result of 'human error', of not reading the directions or paying attention.”

GardeningProblem SolvingMystery Of LifeHome OwnershipHorticultureGreen ThumbDealing With Failure
Book:Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden
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“I have spoken to plants myself, and if pressed for conclusions would have to say that those I threatened did better than those I - well, I wouldn't say prayed over, but pleaded with, cajoled. A rhododendron that hadn't bloomed for six years was flatly told it would be removed the following year if there were no flowers. Need I say that it has bloomed profusely ever since?”

IfsNeedsYearsWellsWould BeFlowerSixPlantFollowingConclusionGardeningThreatened
Author:Eleanor Perenyi
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“Gertrude Jekyll, like Monet, was a painter with poor eyesight, and their gardens - his at Giverny in the Seine valley, hers in Surrey - had resemblance's that may have sprung from this condition. Both loved plants that foamed and frothed over walls and pergolas, spread in tides beneath trees; both saw flowers in islands of colored light - an image the normal eye captures only by squinting.”

LoveMayLightEyePoorVisionSawsSeeingTreeConditionsFlowerWallNormalGardenPlantSpreadPainterIslandsCaptureValleysTidesResemblanceSprungEyesightGertrudeJekyllMonetSquintingSurreyPoor Eyesight
Author:Eleanor Perenyi
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“A gift of flowers to a woman implies that she is as deliciously desirable as the blossoms themselves; but there may be another and hidden message, contained in the old-fashioned phrases like 'shy as a violet, 'clinging vine,' not originally conceived as pejoratives, that tells more of the truth - which is that flowers are also emblems of feminine submission.”

MayTruthFlowerMessagesPhrasesShyFeminineDesirableOld FashionedSubmissionVioletClingingVinesEmblemsHidden Messages
Author:Eleanor Perenyi
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“Or perhaps you notice a congregation of ladybugs on a rose stalk. Don't invoke the old nursery saying and ask them to fly away home. Their house is not on fire. Your roses are, with aphids, which the ladybugs are feeding on - and you can bless yourself that they have come to your rescue.”

HomeAsksHouseFireRoseBlessRescueFeedingStalkingNurseryCongregationInvokeFly AwayLadybugs
Book:Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden
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