Something Else Southern?

   It is a southern thing.  You hear that often with everything from blessing folk's hearts to eating grits and fried mullet.  It is a southern thing.  While some people think we are a bit backward, we really do not care.  We do our own thing, love one another and live life to the fullest.  We are just happy to be alive and if that is confusing to you...well, kiss my grits.  Who cares?  

  One thing that I was told was pretty much a southern thing by a cousin who lives way up north, is the fact that if visitors ever comment on our garden, they have set themselves up to receive whatever caught their eye.  We give.  We almost over-give.  Armloads of vegetables or fruit are pushed on anyone who comes.  The same goes with our flowers.  Compliment a flower garden and you are bound to be the recipient of cuttings, small plants or seeds. We don't care who you are or where you came from, when you leave, you will be loaded down with something!  No one can leave empty-handed. It is a southern thing...we share...a lot.

  Pass-along plants are a thing much like hand-me-down clothes.  One of the favorites down here is the Confederate Rose.  This is not a rose at all but a member of the hibiscus family or mallow family.  It is one of those plants that is easily rooted by a snippet of stem.  Stick it in some water and a few weeks later, you have a sapling.  Then, it is not long before you have a nice sized shrub that will be covered with lovely saucer-sized blooms during the fall.  Just about everyone down here in the Deep South will tell you their story about receiving a cutting from someone's garden.  The tales are about as interesting as the shrub, itself.  We take pride in giving credit where credit is due.  It is a southern thing.