why
this could be put into why i grow orchids as well but it is here so be it. Growing up my dad had gardens all around the property and it was my job in the summer to weed and keep the yard mowed we had 2 1/2 acres one of the largest yards in the neighborhood. every summer i dreaded the work that lay ahead of me to the point that i despised plants and wanted nothing to do with them. some of you know that my dad is as close to a master gardner as you can get with out the paper work he never was a status cymbol type. he never went to school for botany or horticulture he learned from the school of hard knocks his dad. my grandfather was a master gardner and was well known through out the united states for his knowledge of plants. i can remember going to his house when i was little and was always in awl of his place. the last home he had built had 7 ponds and 2 lakes on it, each pond was a entirely different garden theme. there were also 5 greenhouses behind the house where he kept his nursery stock for his business. the main thing that i will never forget was the huge conservatory off of the formal dining room that was filled with tropical plants that were collected from around the world in his travels. in the middle of the conservatory was a huge fountain that was totaly amazing to see in the surrounding of the plants. My grandfather was a amazing man he was the second oldest in a family with 8 children, when he was ten years old he was sold with his oldest brother to the railroad company because his parents could not afford to feed all the kids. when he was in his twenties he was kicked in the head by a horse and was in a coma for a while and one of my last visits with him i remember him telling me that he prayed that if he ever woke from that that he would spend the rest of his life beautifying the world with plants and flowers. he kept his word. the rest of his life he devoted to gardening not just here in the us but all over the world he had travelled to 67 different countries . when he was in his seventies he walked part of the great wall of china.one of the biggest companies that he help start is still in business today and has gone world wide. he helped the founder financially get the business going but declined to get involved with the business due to the fact that they were in the business of removing trees and he was into planting them, you may know them they drive green and white trucks and go by the name of davey tree. my grandfather was a amazing man that past away at the age of 97. when he was 90 he moved back to his hometown in PA. and married his highschool sweetheart, it was his third wife and he outlasted her. when he was 95 he returned back to ohio for his final years, so for almost every orchid i get to bloom travels back to my mom and dads house as i know it brings memories to my dad of his father who taught him the values of hard work to which he passed on to me(also my mom loves them). my dad is in his late seventies now and still does a couple of yards a week in the summer to keep from going bored. i hope that in my dads eyes i have made him proud the way he felt towards his father as i know growing up i made alot of mistakes to which drove us farther apart, maybe now with every bloom i get brings us back one step closer to that point to where he is proud of the fact that my passion for plants has carried on thru the family, this is why i grow orchids and dad the next bloom is for you and grandpa thank you
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