In article ,
Victoria Clare wrote:
(gmt) wrote in :

I tried grumbling. This, after a fashion, was
the successful technique. The one bay tree became
three, because two members of the family then
bought me baby bay trees as birthday presents.

Your grumbling technique must be superior to mine.

I've tried leaving seed & plant catalogues about filled with bookmarks and
red pen, giving other people's names and addresses to the catalogue people,
and talking endlessly about plants, and what do they say?

They say : 'Ooo, I never know what to get you!'.

Bah!

(waves hand dismissively in the manner of Dogbert).

I think I got a bit obsessive about propagating bays
and they were at their wits ends to shut me up!

Way back in '87 a friend came to dinner, bearing
not a bottle of wine, nor flowers, but a trailer of
well rotted FYM. I enthused about this for ages
hoping others would take the hint.

I discovered the hard way that if you ask
hubby for something see-through you can slip into
he never thinks of a greenhouse ;-(. So subtlety
isn't the answer - we need T-Shirts bearing a
variation of 'If in doubt buy me the biggest
blue plant pot you can afford!' On second thoughts
make that a sweatshirt - then I can wear it in the
cooler weather just before Christmas.

JillT
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