Jewels in the Juniper - Dale Mayer Page 0,33

Because I have so much, they’ve all become overcrowded.”

Doreen looked at her in surprise. “Have you got any to share?”

“Oh, boy, do I ever,” Heidi said. “Come on inside. I’m not even keeping all these bulbs this year. If they survive the winter, they survive. Otherwise I’ll be pulling them.”

The bulbs she talked about were dahlias. Doreen stood in front of a beautiful purple dinner plate dahlia and gasped. “These are stunning,” she murmured.

“I’m really happy with them. But you know what the tubers are like. They multiply quickly.”

“They do,” Doreen agreed. “Should you ever have any extras, I would love to put some in. I have one section of the garden I could literally do all in dahlias.”

“It’s too early to pull the tubers, as these haven’t even flowered yet,” she said, “but I still have lots left over from last year. I didn’t even bother putting them all out.”

The two women walked the garden, which was amazing. Painted daisies, echinacea, white daisies, and black-eyed Susans, just to name a few. Doreen had a little bit here and there but nothing like this. Some red plants she didn’t recognize crawled along as ground cover.

“Wow,” she said. “This is a superior garden. I would love to have this many plants.”

“You’re more than welcome to come back tomorrow. I’ll be pulling a bunch of each of these,” Heidi said, “because everything is just too thick.” She pointed to some. “See? I’ve already pulled these.”

Doreen walked over to see multiple plants. Perennials from snowball bushes that were small and obviously volunteers, to a small hydrangea, and all the daisy-like flowers she had just looked at. Turning to the lady, she said, “If you don’t want these, I would be more than happy to take them.”

“I would love that,” the woman said. “I do hate to kill a plant.”

Doreen nodded. “Do you happen to have a bag I could put these in?” she asked. “As you can see, I’m out walking. These animals and I walk all over town.”

“So you should. It’s great exercise. Let me have a look inside.” She disappeared into the big house.

All of a sudden yelling came from inside.

Doreen frowned and looked down at the animals. Mugs wasn’t happy at the noise and had been sitting quietly beside the wheelbarrow, but now stared up toward the house, barking.

The woman came out looking a little shaken.

“I’m sorry. Is there a problem?” Doreen asked hesitantly.

The woman looked at her, giving her a slight shake of her head. “No. Just a little resistance I wasn’t expecting.”

“Oh, dear,” Doreen said. “I’m so sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter. Here. Let’s see what we can package up for you to carry.” Very quickly, Heidi had everything from the wheelbarrow slipped into two bags. She gave them a light shake to see if they were too heavy. “What about these? Do you think you can carry them okay?”

“Oh, I’m sure I can,” Doreen said, giving the woman a bright smile. “I can’t thank you enough.”

Then she noticed another small bag the woman had brought out and handed it to her.

“These are all dahlias,” she said. “Like I said, I never even had a chance to get them in the ground, but they are a mix. I can’t tell you what they are. I never really cared and always thought of it as the joy of planting.”

“Oh, my word, thank you.”

“I haven’t had a chance to go into my gardening shed yet, so, if you want to come back tomorrow, I do have more bulbs. I would take them down to the local church bazaar, but, if you would like some tulips or hyacinths, I mean, really, I have so many plants here.” She looked around almost helplessly at a garden that had gotten completely overgrown while she wasn’t looking.

“I am overjoyed and very thankful to have anything you want to move out,” Doreen said. “I have at least sixty feet of garden I’ll fill.”

The woman gasped in joy. “Oh my, that will be stunning.”

“Well, it will be,” Doreen said, “but it certainly isn’t yet.”

“If you had a car—” She stopped and looked at Doreen, who was nodding.

“I do.”

With a nod the woman smiled. “And how about a shovel? If you could bring a shovel in your car tomorrow, we could fill bags and buckets and give you some of these.” She walked through, pointing out dozens and dozens of plants she wanted to move out.

“I would be ecstatic.” Doreen was filled with gratitude in her heart. “This would

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