The Great Pumpkin

It was a scrawny little plant, the only one left in it's section at the Walmart garden center. On a whim I picked it up and put it in the basket with Carol's selection of flowers. “What's that?” she asked.

“I thought I'd try growing a Pumpkin plant, it's only a couple of dollars!”

“It looks pretty sad,” she said, shaking her head, “Where are you going to plant it?”

“Maybe I'll try planting it in the greenhouse.”

“I don't think you can grow them in a greenhouse.”

“Well, I'm gonna try!”

When we got home I planted the wilted, sagging, little thing on the right side of the greenhouse where there was a lot of growing room. I gave it a good drink of water and sprinkled some diatomaceous earth around it to keep the slugs, snails and sow bugs off.

The next day it looked a little better, but I still had my doubts about it surviving. I carefully tied its two drooping leaves up to a small stick and gave it some more water. A few days later a small vine started creeping out of the stem and the leaves were strong enough to stand without support.

Several weeks later it was thriving, and there was a bright yellow flower blooming among the large leaves. I went to the computer and did some research on Pumpkin growing, where I found out that as usual, Carol was right; Pumpkins don't do well in a greenhouse. For one thing, they need lots of room, and even though I'd given it one whole side of our greenhouse, about 12 feet, the vines sometimes grow to over 20 feet. For another, the flowers are male and female, only last for one day, and they need Bees to pollinate them.

I found a website that showed how to hand pollinate the flowers and decided to try it. After all, if a Bee can do it by accident I should be able to do it on purpose. I learned how to tell a male flower from a female, (The female has a swelling at it's base which is the start of a Pumpkin, if the flower gets pollinated.)

Three or four male flowers bloomed and died before a female opened it's yellow petals, but by then there were no males left blooming, to furnish pollen. Pumpkin sex is difficult! Maybe I should have paid more attention when dad gave me the Birds and the Bees talk.

I fertilized, and watered, and waited for a female and male flower to bloom on the same day and finally, Ta Daa! It happened! I nervously, gently used a q-tip to transfer pollen from the male flower to the female, and began waiting for a Pumpkin to appear

Two days later the swelling at the base of the now shriveled flower turned yellow and fell off. The vines and leaves had grown to the length of the greenhouse, turned the corner and were threatening world domination, but despite my best Bee impersonations, no Pumpkins.

I went to Google for advice on pruning Pumpkin plants, and pruned the vines back to a more manageable size. By then I was getting frustrated, and when a male and female blossom appeared one day, instead of a gentle courtship, I plucked the male flower, tore off the petals and jammed the stamen into the female flower. (I feel guilty even writing about it!)

Lo and behold, a few days later the swelling below the wilted flower began to grow! Maybe Pumpkins like rough sex, I thought.

The rapidly growing Pumpkin was at the far end of the greenhouse right on top of our compost bin. I slid some boards under it for support and kept up a steady supply of water and fertilizer. The pumpkin kept growing.

One day while I was watering the ever thirsty plant I noticed the little plastic tag that came in the original pot. Since I had never read it, I was surprised to see that from its humble beginning my little plant was going to become a “Bonnie Mega Pumpkin!” Oh-oh!

I began to have visions of a giant Pumpkin outgrowing our greenhouse, forcing me to either tear out the end of the greenhouse or saw the Pumpkin up with a chainsaw to get it out.

The Bonnie plants website calmed my worries, when I read that a Mega Pumpkin wasn't in the same league as a Giant Pumpkin. I wanted it to get big though, because I love Pumpkin Pies!

I proudly showed Carol my great green thumb accomplishment (for about the twentieth time) and she promptly took the wind out of my sails when she said, “It looks more like a Watermelon than a Pumpkin!” To my dismay, I realized that she was right, it was green with dark green stripes and yellow speckles. It didn't look anything like a pumpkin!

I began to wonder; could Bonnie have made a mistake and swapped seeds? I'm not real fond of Watermelon anyway, and Watermelon pies for Thanksgiving? Yuk!

To be continued....