Appealing Honesty

I am no gardener.  I love trees, plants and flowers of all kinds.  I have no skill in growing them, however.  When something actually takes root, grows and flourishes in my yard, I'm thrilled and amazed.  For the past several years I've had such success with a plant I like very much.  I grew up knowing this plant as "Honesty" or a "Money Plant".  Its proper name is Lunaria.

My mother, that lady of the green thumb, introduced me to this plant when I was a young girl and I've always thought it was a lovely and fun plant.  It goes through many stages.  It starts out as a lush, leafy plant.  Next, pretty little flowers appear; they can be purple, lilac or white (mine are white)  which are later replaced by oval green seedpods.  These pods gradually turn light brown with a crispy-looking and feeling texture.  The black seeds resting within can be seen quite clearly.  Now it's time for the fun part.

By now, the plant has altered its appearance completely.  Gone are the lush, green leaves and what remains are dried stalks full of golden brown, dried seedpods hanging from them.  It's time to harvest and peel the Honesty.  I cut the stalks down at the bottom of the plants and set a huge pile on newspaper pages spread out on the table.  I then gently rub each seedpod betwen my fingers and both sides of the "crispy" layers come off to reveal beautiful, silvery paperlike circles.  I find this a very pleasant task and most insidious.  Each circle has many little seeds attached which I brush off into a bowl.  As usual Mother Nature is so abundant and there are lots of them.  Each seed will produce another plant.  I toss these seeds back into the dirt and cheerfully let the earth work its magic.  See what kind of gardener I am?  They'll either come up or they won't.  Time will tell.

The first time I noticed these plants in my backyard, I didn't even realize what they were.  I had forgotten that I had thrown a bunch of seeds that my mother gave me a long time ago out there in the first place.  It wasn't until the plants went through their entire cycle and I noticed the dried oval-shaped coins.  They looked mighty familiar and I realized to my delight what I had.  Well, duh!  Talk about the casual gardener!

When I've finished peeling the Honesty, I have a "bouquet" full of stalks with these shimmering circles on them.  Their texture reminds me of what I imagine paper sliding doors in Japanese houses to look like.  When you place them in a vase, ta da!  Instant arrangement that is elegant in its simplicity and when the light shines through them, it's a beautiful sight.  Since this is a dried arrangement it lasts a long, long time.  I keep many all over the house and they seem to last until the time comes to replace them with the next year's offerings. 

It doesn't take much to make me happy and these plants put me in plant heaven.