Chapter 3: With Silver Bells, and Cockle Shells

The boys at school were still saying I had a brown thumb and that the poem had it all wrong. Billy said it should be:

Mary, Mary quite contrary

How does your garden grow?

With devils weed, and evil seeds,

and stinky toadstools all in a row.

It made me so mad I wanted to hit him, I wasn’t allowed to do that or say the words I wanted to. I had asked Davie to beat him up but he wouldn’t do it. He said that Billy was older than him so he would be certain to lose the fight. I asked Patti to tell him she wouldn’t like him anymore but she told me she didn’t want to lie.

What is a girl to do?

I asked Mum at dinner about what could I do to stop them from saying all the mean things. I had tried everything I could think of. I had even thought about going to a teacher and crying about how mean Billy and his friends were but the teachers had seen me practice crying.

Mum told me she had been planning to do something for a long time and now was the time. She was going to start a flower garden with a greenhouse. I wonder why it has to be green.

After dinner, Mum took me to a book store where she bought books on growing flowers. She was interested in Silver Bells, Cockle Shells, and Maids all in a row. She showed me their real names Halesia, Prosthechea Cochleata, and Auriculeas but I couldn’t say those words.

She told me that we were going to grow those flowers. That sounded like fun! Mum bought a whole bunch of books. I hope I didn’t have to read all of them, they had a lot of big words and some of them looked very funny.

The next day at school I told Patti that Mum and I were going to grow the flowers in the poem. She told Davie and he told the other kids.

When I got home I told Mum at lunch about all the kids making fun of me. I really am mad at Patti she promised me she wouldn’t tell anybody. Mum explained to me that revenge was a dish best served cold. That made sense as I didn’t think you could cook revenge, maybe it was some sort of desert, like Tam Tattlers Tart. Mum always promised those but never gave us any.

After lunch Mum had our driver and my new lady guard, Sally, take us to a garden center. It was a big one with all sorts of plants indoors and outdoors. There was even a big fountain. It was fun to splash the water. Mum didn’t like me getting my dress wet but thought it would dry out quickly.

She spent a lot of time talking to a man. He took us around the lot and showed us a building that was all glass. He called it a greenhouse. The front was painted white so I wonder why they named it greenhouse. Maybe the green family lived in them.

When I asked Mum explained they were used to grow plants in all types of weather. When it snowed the plants stayed green, and that is how it got its name.

“Are you going to buy one?”

“Yes dear, I have been planning on it ever since we moved to Jackson House. This gives me a reason to do it.”

“How long will it take to grow the flowers?”

“Normally a long time, but we are going to cheat.”

“Ricky won’t let me cheat at monopoly will he get mad at us?”

Mummy laughed and said, “No dear, not that type of cheating, we are going to buy plants that are ready to flower.”

“Oh, do they sell them here?”

“We have to order them from different greenhouses around the country. They will ship them to our new greenhouse.”

While Mum talked to the man about buying the greenhouse and having it set up I wandered around the store. Sally followed me everywhere. I don’t know what I will do when Davie decides to like girls.

They had statues and garden gnomes and a bunch of other stuff. There was a row of rough looking knight’s armor. They didn’t look like those I had seen in England. These were pieces of metal welded together to look like armor. No one could wear them. They would make a silly decoration.

I was curious as to how heavy they were. I pushed one on the end just a little. It tipped over onto the one next to it. That started the whole row of them falling over with a terrible clang and clatter.

Sally grabbed my arm and walked us away as people came running. When we got back to Mum, Mum asked if we knew what all the noise was. Sally told her someone had knocked over a row of fake knight’s armor.

For some reason, Mum really looked at me. I pretended as I did at home when Eddie and I did something. I just kept thinking he did it, he did it. Usually, it didn’t work with Mum but it did this time.

I turned to Sally who had just winked at Mum for some reason. I think I’m going to like Sally.

Two weeks later the greenhouses had been delivered and were all in place sitting on concrete Dad had installed. They had water, heat, air conditioning along with a sprinkler system. There were three of them behind the garage. Mum explained it was so we could have different limats. I don’t know what a limat is, but it must be important to plants.

The flowers arrived several days later. There were a whole bunch of them, Silver Bells, Cockle Shells, and Maids all in a Row. They are all pretty but the Maids smelled the best.

They started arriving on Wednesday and the last came in on Friday. They all looked wilted when we got them but by Monday they were all standing up and looking better.

The greenhouse has a sprinkler system inside to water the flowers. The water goes on the plants and some of it goes on to the greenhouse floor. It also washes some of the dirt out of the plants to the floor. It makes a real muddy mess that is fun to stomp your foot in.

It splashes everywhere. I had fun doing that until Mum saw me. She got upset because I had on white tights under my pinafore. They were a little dirty. Okay, they were a horrid muddy mess.

The plants looked better each day. Finally, the flowers started blooming. On a Wednesday Mum decided they were ready for Show and Tell.

Mum gave me a note for my teacher and suggested that I asked to be able to show my flowers at Show and Tell on Friday.

I was so excited Friday morning. Mum and I got up early and cut the flowers. She had display vases for them. When Mum said the word, it sounded like the word was with a V in front and a long A as in Spanish. When Dad said it, it sounded like base. One of them talks funny.

When it was my turn at Show and Tell my driver and Sally came in with the vases full of flowers. I told them what they were and how they were grown and what limats they liked and how much food and water they needed.