The scene outside is all too familiar: fine, steady snow being buffeted about a persistent northeast wind. Inside, the scene is a little different: an flower pot filled with potting soil awaits a rooted begonia leaf. To heck with snow. It’s spring, and I’m planting!
This cutting is descended from a plant that originally belonged to my great-great grandmother and was kept alive for the better part of the twentieth century by my great-aunt. After she passed away, my mother inherited the plant. Now, my sister and I are keepers of this hardy, giant-leafed plant. Starting a new plant is as simple as cutting off a leaf and plopping it into a jar of water. It doesn’t take long for roots to erupt from the bottom of the stem. Once they’ve appeared, the leaf can be planted. Today’s plant is for my son and his fiancé’s new apartment.
I’m not ordinarily a rebellious person. But planting this next generation begonia today was my act of defiance against all this snow. Happy spring, everyone!
Thank you to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, and Lanny for creating this community and providing this space for teachers and others to share their stories every day in March and each Tuesday throughout the year. Be sure to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.
Reading to the Core 
Ha!! I love your defiance of the snow. Way to take the spring season into your own hands. Who needs the outdoors! (Hopefully, the snow will end soon!!)
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You rebel! I love your spirit!
I am so touched by your post and this lovely plant passing through the generations.
Your post makes me smile.
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Do you think winter could read your message about an act of defiance and go away?!? Love the way you’ve kept the begonia alive. There’s an important story in that, I think!
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I love the history of this amazing plant. Good luck with the cutting. I do not have a green thumb, but my mother still has a plant I gave her when I was in 8th grade!
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It’s amazing that the same plant has been alive so long…and that you know its story! How neat.
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I also love the history of your plant. I had no idea you could propagate a begonia like this. What a wonderful gift for your son and his fiancee and a great project for a snowy day!
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Yay!!! I love an act of defiance in the name of spring. What a wonderful gift it will be for your son. In our family, it’s a Christmas cactus that gets planted and replanted across generations.
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[…] Today’s poem is a Fib, or Fibonacci poem, a poem that follows the Fibonacci sequence to determine the number of words, or in this case, syllables in each line of the poem. I worked out to eight syllables, then repeated the sequence backwards, ending with a single word. The idea for today’s poem came from “Propagation,” an essay by Naomi Huffman, in this week’s New York Times Magazine. You can read more about the real begonia in the poem here. […]
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