Orange blossom memories

Growing up in central Florida, we had a lot of time to garden. As a child I never liked to myself. I did not (and still don't) like to get dirty (go figure!) and it seemed to be something I wasn't good at anyway. Looking back we were surrounded by all the wonderful heat loving plants and veggies Mother Earth allowed to grow in Florida. On one side of my house we had a huge hibiscus- easily 6 feet tall, with gorgeous fuchsia flowers. My grandfather would cut it down to nubs every winter, and by April it would be six feet tall again. On the other side we had a gigantic oak tree. The kind with roots that got so gnarly you would have to jump over them if you happened to be running. It shaded the whole east side of our house. Our back yard was crazy. Right behind our back fence was a mini jungle. We grew bananas, at least 4 trees. Some random elephant ears, and a bunch of other greenery I never knew what they were. I was always scared back there because it was home to dozens of snakes and spiders.

My grandfather also had an old antique bath tub. The kind with legs that made it stand up off the floor. He planted all sorts of annual flowers in there, and in a refurbished toilet. In the corner of the yard was a huge Aloe plant. It was at least 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide. He also grew peppers and tomatoes in large 5 gallon plastic buckets. I remember putting 2x4s in the soil and tying the plants to it with an old ripped t-shirt when it got too big to stand up.

The big kicker, though, was the fact that right next store was two lots full of grapefruit and orange trees. Some guy in another state owned the lots, and he had us take care of the trees. Imagine enough space for two houses to go on full of citrus trees! I hated having to go in them. The ground was covered in fallen leaves and bugs and gross stuff like rotting citrus surrounded by those tiny flies. I will never forget the smell of rotting citrus! My grandfather would take this long pole with a saw on the end and trim the topmost branches and knock oranges and grapefruit off. You had to watch out or you would be caught in an orange shower! We would drag back garbage bags full of fruit, where we would peel and squeeze them. To this day I have never developed a taste for citrus. The trees are all gone, and two houses are squeezed where they once stood. Even my grandfather is no longer around. But one thing I do have that I can grab onto is an orange tree in my front yard. Every year, right around this time, it gets covered with orange blossoms. The easterly breeze brings their scent in the house. One whiff of it and I am taken back to when I was a kid in those trees. And it's a great feeling  :)

Orange blossoms from my own tree!