Plants bring me close to people who I consider adopted family too. Take Barry McGuire, for instance. The first time I met Barry I arrived at his home in Elk Falls to tune a piano he’d purchased from a music store in Wichita. The walkway to his door was lined with grow-boxes full of vibrant flowers. I learned that he was highly regarded as a sort of wizard with flowers from coast to coast, with gardens and friends all over. His Elk Falls story included a famous sunken flower garden that along with other local attractions brought busloads of tourists to Elk Falls.

Barry didn’t do much with house plants inside, but he loved the seemingly infinite variety of blooming plants on our planet. When I told him about the “red spider lily” that had so impressed and mystified me, he got on his computer and looked it up. I was a little disappointed to find out that I didn’t have a new variety of the “naked ladies” my dad enjoyed. The red variety, which blooms a month later, actually originated in Japan. Its technical name is Lycoris radiata. With that in mind, it found an important place in my piano mystery.

When Barry moved from Elk Falls to my hometown (slightly bigger with more conveniences available) he brought a small lemon tree in a container, his only house plant. He named the tree Jose Limon. I think it reminded him of happy times in southern California. Jose has to be brought inside during the cold winter months in the Great Plains region, so it stays in a pot. The tree grew and grew, though, and is now in the biggest pot I could find.

Barry moved hither and yon a couple more times before his final move to the great beyond, but he always came back to Kansas and his rural roots. In the end, he left me all his grow-boxes, and the lemon tree. This year was a good year for lemons, and good old Jose came through with a bumper crop. On harvest day, I picked 21 fruits off the branches, much like last year in December. I have learned how to make all kinds of lemon treats: lemon bars, of course, but also lemon curd (which is much like a jelly), and candied lemon peels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always think of Barry when I tend his lemon tree. He seems close by when Jose blooms and puts on a crop of fruits. Barry sure knew how to bring out the best in plants and I am grateful for that.