COLUMNIST ROQUEMORE'S CORNER
2024 Marh 15
Cedar Key resident and Cedar Key Beacon columnist Susan Engle Roquemore has compiled her writings into two wonderfully and cleverly titled books:
My mom was for several terms president of the North Tampa Garden Club, but this story precedes that by many years. In fact, it precedes me (and that goes back to the Dark Ages.) Mama had moved to Tampa in 1929, and like all typical Yankees (sorry about that, Yankees), she didn't know the names of the native plants. I doubt that she really cared a whole lot back then with a young child to pamper and a house to keep. In the ensuing years she started gathering wildflowers to put on the table. She transplanted some of these to her yard. They thrived—pretty foliage, lovely white blooms. Her neighbor had a field of these plants. Once a year the neighbor’s son would come down to Florida from New York and help his mother clear the field. He’d take away the plants. One day Mama was visited by an official looking person. He told her she was growing marijuana—which was illegal even then. Sitting in front of him was a vase full of the flowers! Apparently the nice son of her neighbor was “harvesting” the crop for sale in New York! Thus began my mother's illustrious garden clubbing career!
Turn Left at the Big Osprey Nest and
Water Under the Number 4 Bridge: A Memoir of the Beacon Years (1988-1993)
Water Under the Number 4 Bridge: A Memoir of the Beacon Years (1988-1993)
These books are currently sold at:
the Cedar Key Chamber of Commerce Welcome Center,
the Cedar Key Historical Society Museum,
the Florida’s Nature Coast Conservancy events,
and the Woman’s Club.
These organizations receive the book’s full sales price.
the Cedar Key Chamber of Commerce Welcome Center,
the Cedar Key Historical Society Museum,
the Florida’s Nature Coast Conservancy events,
and the Woman’s Club.
These organizations receive the book’s full sales price.
For your reading pleasure and enjoyment of an incisive, often humorous
view of Cedar Key two decades ago, Ms. Roquemore and the Cedar Key News intend to publish selected articles monthly.
view of Cedar Key two decades ago, Ms. Roquemore and the Cedar Key News intend to publish selected articles monthly.
Cedar Key News hopes you enjoy the articles. If you do, and should you purchase one or both books, the above non-profit organizations will certainly appreciate the effort.
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MY MOTHER AND HER “POT” PLANTS...
(A ONCE-UPON-A-TIME ARTICLE FROM MY GARDENING PAST)
(A ONCE-UPON-A-TIME ARTICLE FROM MY GARDENING PAST)
It looks like I may wind up being the new president of the Cedar Key Garden Club (this was in 1989). At least I have been nominated, an honor I am not sure I deserve. My record with plants is not too edifying. We still don’t have any grass in the yard and we are batting about .500 with trees. The Christmas freeze took a lot of ornamentals and last weekend the Christmas cactus blew off the deck and splattered all over the driveway. I now have 496 new Christmas cacti. My indoor poinsettias have withered and our cat Petunia thinks the deck planter boxes are her private porta-potties.
If the truth be known, I really am a lousy gardener. I grow wonderful mint and parsley and strawberries. I’m the only person you ever heard of that chemically pruned strawberries. This is what happens when you fertilize them and don’t get the crystals washed off the plants. I killed them! The ones that remain are joyous to have more room to spread out, but still I feel like an assassin. I ate my first berry today so I don’t feel too bad.
After the freeze, when I was assessing the damage, it occurred to me that I’d forgotten about my sweet potatoes. I started digging and found about forty yams underground. Something of a treasure hunt! Now, if the truth be known, David is the real gardener in the family. What he plants, sprouts! He has lettuce that survived December and is so very pretty. It is also good to eat. I’ve taken to putting lettuce on my cornflakes. Soon we will have another crop of snow peas and God only knows what else he planted. I draw the line at putting onions on my cornflakes!
But, this is not my story. It is one of those family legends. (And my family has a zillion of them.)
My mom was for several terms president of the North Tampa Garden Club, but this story precedes that by many years. In fact, it precedes me (and that goes back to the Dark Ages.) Mama had moved to Tampa in 1929, and like all typical Yankees (sorry about that, Yankees), she didn't know the names of the native plants. I doubt that she really cared a whole lot back then with a young child to pamper and a house to keep. In the ensuing years she started gathering wildflowers to put on the table. She transplanted some of these to her yard. They thrived—pretty foliage, lovely white blooms. Her neighbor had a field of these plants. Once a year the neighbor’s son would come down to Florida from New York and help his mother clear the field. He’d take away the plants. One day Mama was visited by an official looking person. He told her she was growing marijuana—which was illegal even then. Sitting in front of him was a vase full of the flowers! Apparently the nice son of her neighbor was “harvesting” the crop for sale in New York! Thus began my mother's illustrious garden clubbing career!
It wasn’t until many years later, when us kids were able to fix our own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, that Mama took her garden clubbing seriously. She was into the weirder plants: poisonous plants, wild edibles and medicinals. Finally, after almost 30 years, she had a permit to grow marijuana for exhibition purposes. This got a little funny since she would exhibit at the Florida State Fair in Tampa and caused more than one raised eyebrow. Mama was cleared by the Sheriff but it was still a hot potato. Then she went on the air. I don’t know that I ever heard a broadcast since I wasn’t home those years, but I am sure that with the way my mother loves to talk, they probably didn’t get a commercial in edgewise.
I’m hoping that I can talk her into coming up to Cedar Key in the near future to share some of her expertise with us who probably would kill even a marijuana plant. Mama is one of these people who can put a fence post in the ground and it will sprout leaves.
This isn’t much of a recommendation from the nominee for presidency of the Garden Club but it might make some of you who are interested in joining less fearful. I need all the help I can get. Mama! Where are you?!
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