Grand Magazine - July/August 2008 - (Page 28)

long-distance love Potted stems from my grandmother’s jade plant will bloom anew in my granddaughter’s kitchen. Jade plants—Crassula argentea—owe their centuries of popularity to indestructibility. They tolerate owner abuse and neglect, enduring for years without repotting, thriving in poor soil, patiently waiting weeks (or even months) for water. If a jade tree threatens to die, you can grow new shoots by poking a single leaf into a pot of dirt. If the pot tips over, you can push the broken branches into dirt to create new plants. Jade plants are beautiful—some even bear fragrant white flowers in the winter. If you’re artistic, you can sculpt their branches into bonsai or, in warm climates, shape them into stylish hedges. Feng shui experts claim that jade plants will increase your wealth: Display one in a shop window to attract customers. Scientists say the foliage generates low amounts of negative air ions, freshening indoor air, reducing anxiety and improving health. In South Africa, natives use the leaves to dress cuts and sores and as a balm to relieve pain. (Jades are considered nontoxic, but keep any houseplant away from children too young to know not to eat the leaves!) Almost 70 years after her death, I’m planting the cuttings from Dana’s jade tree into a beautiful pot. The leaves and stems will grow into a new tree for Lauren. Today—sadly—Lauren and her family live in New York, thousands of miles away. But I’m pretty sure the sturdy little jade plant will survive the journey to its new home on a sunny kitchen windowsill at Lauren’s house. And maybe someday—far, far away from my Seattle kitchen— Lauren will snip a cutting for a new jade to give to her child. And perhaps, eventually, even the children of Lauren’s children will admire the jade in their kitchens and know that once—long, long ago— their great-great-great grandmother began a legacy of new life with a single snippet. G Cuttings By CArol Arnold A living legacy on the windowsill I ’m Potting A jAde PlAnt for Lauren, my 4-year-old granddaughter. The cuttings, I snipped yesterday from the jade tree in my house in Seattle. While I snipped, I thought of Dana, my own grandmother. Dana died years before I was born, but her jade plant—rootbound and neglected—lived on in our family house in a blue ceramic pot. When I grew up, I married and moved thousands of miles away. As I prepared to say goodbye, my father cut off a stem from Dana’s jade tree. He wrapped the cutting in a little bag of soil. “Plant this in your new home,” he said. The offspring of that jade plant flowers today in my kitchen window. 28 GRAND JULY AUGUST 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Grand Magazine - July/August 2008

Grand Magazine - July/August 2008
Contents
Grand View: Love Is All That's Left
Isn't It Grand?: Reassessing the Postponed Life
Grand Central
Just So We Know: One Mixed-Up Lemon
Long-Distance Love: Cuttings
Ask Grand: Stuck on Stuff
Grand Gestures: "Thanks for the Ugly Gift"
Tips on Teens: All That Doesn't Meet the Eye
Live Long and Propser
On the Cover: Peter Yarrow
Presents of Mine
Thicker Than Water?
Reunions: White Water, White Knuckles
The Grand Gourmet
So We Are Not Alone
Looking Grand: Suit-Able
Grandbloggers: Why Watch TV When We Can Talk?
Grand Bazaar
Resources
Grand Finale: What Boat

Grand Magazine - July/August 2008