Travels with Victoria

When she hung in the small courtyard of my mother ’s Florida house , Victoria was known as “ The Fern ” because neither her botanical name ( Phlebodium aureum‘Mandaianum ’ ) nor her common name ( bear ’s paw fern ) do work well for colloquial purpose . But as the The Fern matured she became Victoria , in acknowledgement of her lofty stature , require comportment , and demanding ways — certify by frond drop-off as a event of either too much or too short water .

During a visit nursing home , when I was still in graduate school , Mother ask if I want Victoria . She knew I liked plants , and I gladly accepted . This was a decade or so after my forefather gave the flora to her as a stage set of frond stapled toa coconut spathe . At the prison term of transfer to me , Victoria had a 3 - foot - wide frond duet , well over from the 10 - inch - diameter hanging basketful she spring up in .

Mother , who washed , dried , and saved pliant traveling bag of all sizes and descriptions before ziplocks were conceived of , had the perfect - size bag in which to case Victoria . We slid her in , folding the fronds upward , and secure the top with a twist tie .

This was during the age of air - travel pureness , and I intended to lay the bagged flora in the overhead baggage compartment on my recurrence flight to Boston . But as I boarded , clutching the hang - basketball hoop hanger in one hired hand and my roll - aboard in the other , the pilot program asked me , “ Is that a plant ? ”

“ Why , yes , ” I answer .

gracefully , he offered to put the flora behind his seat in the cockpit . Thus , Victoria traveled in better - than - first - class table service , while I was cramped between an overweight gentleman unceasingly chewing helianthus seed and a cleaning woman who call out during charade and landing .

The senior pilot met me , with Victoria in hand , at the cockpit door . I naively thanked him and deplane , never thinking he had hop to use the plant as a pickup gambit . year later , when I order the story , my married man looks at me with a how - dumb - could - you - have - been look . I counter with “ I recollect he just liked plant , ” and the look is renewed with accent .

Victoria dominated our living room in winter and the backyard in summertime . We could not use the open fireplace when she was indoors because her frond duad was so capital that we feared curling her border from the flaming ’s heat . I want to take a bungler knife to the plant and divide it to keep back her to a more liveable sizing , but when I try , a hue and battle cry get up from my married man , importune that Victoria be spared the knife . He suggested that , or else of downsizing , we should repot her into a larger container and enter Victoria in the Philadelphia Flower Show . I soften and repot , and we entered her in the Oldies but Goodies course of study that year .

Victoria want a 10 - infantry - long moving truck to carry her to the show . Her move around garb consisted of two nylon shower curtains sewn together to circle her full build of lifted fronds , allowing liquid passage through doorways .

She took second place , and again I assay to cut and divide , but again my married man protest . “ The judges are getting used to Victoria . Enter her next yr , and she ’ll get the blue . ”

Victoria was entered into the Oldies but Goodies class the following year and won a first - place blue ribbon . My probability to use the tongue was lose forever .

The next year , Victoria moved from the Oldies but Goodies class to the 14 - in - diam and larger dangling - fern class , which repeats three times during the show , and she has advance at least one blue typewriter ribbon every year since .

With her develop renown occur commensurately improved accommodations . A baby’s room three blocks from her summertime spot in our garden became Victoria ’s winter rest home , where she had light , warmth , and water without restriction .

We transported Her Majesty to and from that greenhouse using a coatrack on roulette wheel . Swinging from the hanging rod on an industrial - strength draw — with my hubby in the lead , provide pulling tycoon , and me in the backside , keeping the single-foot rolling straight — Victoria traveled with an cortege of attendants across a major thoroughfare , up a side street , and through the front doors of the greenhouse each fall .

This year , however , we erected a big greenhouse especially for Victoria , where she now repose , expect the first calendar week in March when she will , once again , bestow her royal mien upon the thousands in attendance at the Philadelphia Flower Show .

— Lynn J. Cook ; her husband , Troy ; and Victoria domicile in Landenburg , Pennsylvania .

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