My hibiscus had never done well. I constantly fought bugs and disease and I was losing the battle with at least one of them. It was not going to recover and its twin was looking funny and dropping all its bud before they opened. I decided to replace both of them. Oddly enough, the yellow hibiscus is my oldest plant (other than some palms) and it is still doing fine in the same pot. It is also in front of the air conditioning unit and gets blasts of hot air all summer (who knows?) Filipe agreed to take me to the nursery to see what I could find. But first I wanted to stop at Walmart to pick up some potting soil. At the nursery what they sell as soil is just dirt. They say it has compost in it, but really it is mostly some (hopefully) dead devil grass and other weeds. When the pot dries out it is like an adobe brick with little or no nutrition for the plant.
I could not find what I have previously purchased but there were large white bags of something that said "abono". I asked Filipe what it meant and he said it was the same as dirt. Great I will buy that. Then it was off to the nursery. I was not about to try more hibiscus and hated my two bougainvilleas. The blooms are practically airborne when they fall off. The blossoms blow across my patio and down the staircase and into my kitchen. I already have nine palm trees and wanted a blooming bush of some kind. The crown of thorns does very well and blooms all year, but I already had four of them. I spotted a pink thing that might do. I already had a red version in that blue pot, and since I got the right spray it had done very well. The plant comes in red, yellow and pink and is used all over the city. I was told to go to El Dragon (no idea) and buy a spray.there. It sells mostly just chemicals. The City regularly spray all the trees and public planting with something. It is supposed to be for mosquitoes, but seems to kill everything. It may be DDT for all I know. Yes, I know that DDT has been banned all over the world for over 50 years, but This is Mexico!
I did not want to buy the whole bottle until I tried it, so he poured a some amount in a spray bottle and filled it with water. He told me to shake well before spraying. It worked extremely well (maybe DDT?) But apparently I did not shake it enough. As the liquid got to the bottom of the bottle and I sprayed the plant, and it fried it. The buds and leaves turned brown and fell off. But it recovered. So I bought a whole bottle and now shake it very well. I bought the two pink ones and a canvas bag of soil. Filipe carried it all up the two flights of stairs for me and dumped it. After he left I decided to inspect the bags of ¨"abono". I noticed it said something about using two cups. TWO CUPS? Then I read on and it said something about avoiding getting in your eyes and to wash your hands immediately. What the Hell was this stuff? So I got out my dictionary. Abono de Borrego is sheep shit! (well, literally lamb, but it is still poop). Filipe speaks good English, but as it often happens, something is lost in the translation. He lives in a small two room apartment and I am sure, has never had a potted plant and probably had no idea what was potting soil.
Obviously I could not use the bags as extra soil to mix with the dirt. I was afraid that I would not have enough soil to finish the potting. I was not about to ask Filipe to go back for more dirt, or drive all the way to Home Depot where I knew they had good soil. I already pay Filipe too much money for the trip and paid him even more this time. He mentioned his little boy wanted an expensive toy for Christmas and he was going to have to buy it on time. So, I thought, Hell, it is Christmas. You may remember Filipe as the smiling muscle guy behind the bar at my last party. He has a wife and kid that he supports on his tips from the bar, so I help him when I can.
I had also already arranged for Jorge to saddle soap all my leather and equipauli furniture and he could help me pot them. I thought the only way was to get as much dirt off the discarded plants as possible. I assumed after four years (and because of their poor performance) that they well all root bound. I expected the plant to pull all the soil out. No, Jorge managed to get the plant out with lots of soil left. He is a good hard worker and cleaned up afterward by hosing down the deck.
So now I have two new pink things (I have no idea what they are called in English or Spanish). Obviously they will not become big bushy plants in a month, but they look better than dead ones. Must continue getting stuff done for the party. Meanwhile deciding what to do with the other two bags of Sheep Shit !
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