2)A little tough love makes flowers flourish
I'll never forget the horrified feeling I had the first time I saw my mother take a kitchen shears to my newly blossomed lobelia plants, located along the walkway leading up to our new house. I watched, unable to speak or move, as she took each plant, lifted the bulk of the plant up and away from the ground and with one big "SNIP" removed the already scarce purpley-blue blossom and the majority of the leaves as well, leaving a sad little tuft of root, stem, and a leaf here and there. It was mid-May and we had moved into our first home only a month prior and I had been eagerly awaiting the chance to stretch botany legs a little and see if my mother's green thumb ran in the family. The delicate, brilliant lobelia had caught my eye and before I knew it, they had grown from tiny seedlings to large, sidewalk crowding plants, more stem and leaf than blossom. I knew that their blooming wouldn't last long, so out of ignorance I asked Mom if there was any way to extend...