In the apartment complex are several palms standing 50 feet tall. Last year one was taken down for some reason, maybe of old age as it was loosing its huge fronds. I noticed a couple times a huge dried one on the pavement as I walked by to get the mail.
Because of their tall height I never looked up. Then I ordered a recliner for the back patio. When relaxing on it I could only see high in the sky. A couple doors down I noticed another tall palm. Sometimes I thought it housed a murder of crows. I could hear their loud complaining coming from the tree though I never saw them.
Then, one day, as I rested on my new recliner I noticed the palm had huge yellow blooms hanging between the fronds. My goodness, could it be, could it actually be blooming? I had never seen this before except on my small palm that lived in my bedroom.
Many years ago, maybe 35 or 40, I brought home a pot of palms from the nursery. With careful counting I discovered there were twelve tiny plants no taller than eight inches each. I repotted them into a colorful pot and there they lived for many years, never changing or getting bigger.
When they began to grow some of the plants would give up the struggle and leave the area for those stronger. Those that remained grew big and I had to repot them from time to time. Finally I had five in a eight inch pot. They sent out new fronds regularly stretching up and out. They loved the area next to the bed in the corner of the room with the window close by.
One day while watering the palms I noticed a complex construction, yellowish in color, many branched. There were weirdly constructed flowers. Can it be? The palms were blooming? I had never seen this before. And no, I didn’t get dates as there were no other palms around. The blooming thing eventually dried up and dropped off and that was that.
Chlele Gummer, Author & Artist 