Lessons from Geraniums

Wow, we’ve already made it to July! I think the summer goes by even faster when you are a teacher than when you are a student. This past school year, if you spend pretty much anytime talking to me during the spring, you would know that I was charged with raising geraniums for our high school graduation and that it was NOT going well. They didn’t exactly make it to graduation alive, but they were probably my biggest learning experience from the school year. Not necessarily in growing plants though. I’d have to attempt to grow them again if I wanted to see what all I really learned there, but more about teaching and life it’s self. One day, as I spent a couple hours on a Saturday in the greenhouse by myself desperately trying to nurse the plants back to health, they taught me these simple, yet profound messages.

1. Even when we are all given the same conditions to grow, we all root differently and grow at a different rate.

You would think that all my plants would have grown symmetrically. I got them the same day, they all went into the same soil, the same size pots, got the same water treatment. For some reason though, some were doing much better than others. I still haven’t quite figured that one, but it did remind me that not all people grow at the same rate, including the students I see everyday. All growth is to be celebrated though, no matter the pace. I know I was excited at any little growth on those flowers!

This picture is from the end of April, when the flowers probably looked their best. I didn’t take very many pictures of them because I was embarrassed by them. They only had less than a month from this point thought to be big enough to be part of the decoration at graduation.

2. You have to remove the bad for the good to grow.

We spent a considerable amount of time removing dead leaves from the geraniums so they could put all their energy into the healthy ones, so they would grow faster. We have to pinch and pull some of those leaves off – which for us humans – that might be a slightly painful process, but in the end it’s what we need to be healthy. It makes you pause and think about “What dead leaves in your life do you need to pinch, so you can grow?”

Most likely over watered, some of the leaves on this plant are starting to die. They are still savable, but on their way to death.

3. Don’t completely neglect the good because they are growing or they can die too.

This was one that hit me about my students. Sometimes, as teachers (especially new teachers), we can spend so much time on the kids who need extra help to pay attention or complete assignments, we kinda forget about the self-sufficient students. They need out attention too, just in a slightly different way. I was harshly reminded of this by my geraniums that were on the further-est bench in the greenhouse. They were thriving. The largest and best looking. Going to be the proof to myself I could maybe grow flowers. Then one Monday I came into school and they were dead. Like dead beyond the point of even thinking about saving. I was pretty devastated at that point, but it did serve as a good reminder to myself that all flowers (students) need a little TLC, no matter how nice they look.

4. Don’t give up, you just need a little green left to survive.

I had some plants that started dying hard pretty early on, so they got lots of extra TLC to try to make it alive to graduation. It was amazing to see how some of them came back. If they had just a little bit of green left, I knew there was a slight sliver of hope they would make it, and most of them did. They did not look big and beautiful by the time of graduation, BUT they would have looked beautiful to anyone who saw what they had looked like a short month before. So they taught me, not to give up on myself or any of my students. The fact they are still actually showing up to school means there still is some hope left.

This plant ultimately didn’t make it, but the little sliver of green at the top gave it some hope.

Hopefully you can also learn something from these Geraniums that taught me so much more than the fact I really need to work on my greenhouse skills.