Garden Dilemmas, Delights & Discoveries, Ask Mary Stone, New Jersey Garden blog

Show me the Money Tree

Mary Stone, Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary Stone, Gardening tips, Garden Blogs, Stone Associates Landscape Design,Money Tree

Hello fellow readers,

I recently visited with Diana of the Hospice Grief Center in Newton. What gifts her wisdom, kindness and the services of Hospice are. In the entry area is a beautiful tropical looking plant with a nifty braided trunk that I asked her about; teasing that it looked suspect as a plant only legal for medicinal use in certain states. It’s a Money Tree, Pachira aquatic, and grows into a large tree in tropical and subtropical regions. As a house plant it’s a small bonsai tree.

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The Money Tree at Hospice

Diana shared the legend that a poor Taiwanese farmer first discovered the unusually attractive Money Tree growing in his field. He took it as a sign, dug it up and brought it home to discover it required very little care. The farmer decided to propagate and sell them at the market. They were a huge success and brought him his longed-for affluence which is how the Money Tree became associated with wealth and prosperity. But life is much more than about money.

The number five suggests another theory about the meaning of the Money Tree. They typically have five trunks per plant, five leaves per trunk and five lobes on each leaf. In Feng Shui, the ancient Asian art of arranging objects to generate a positive outcome, there are five elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth.  The Money Tree’s pattern of five is said to represent those elements and placing one in the southeast corner of your home is recommended.

Diana professes not to have a green thumb and I wholeheartedly disagree. The mother plant and the offshoot she potted are thriving which speaks for itself. It also speaks for the nurturing gift she shares with folks like me. It speaks that Christmas is not about money or gifts. It’s about sharing the abundance of Love. By uniting in Love rather than feeding the frenzy of diversity the world would be a Peaceful place. Merry Christmas to all!

Garden dilemmas? askmarystone@gmail.com

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Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!

 

Mary Stone, owner of Stone Associates Landscape Design & Consulting. As a Landscape Designer, I am grateful for the joy of helping others beautify their surroundings which often leads to sharing encouragement and life experiences. These relationships inspired my weekly column published in THE PRESS, 'Garden Dilemmas? Ask Mary', began in 2012. I dream of growing the evolving community of readers into an interactive forum to share encouragement and support in Garden and Personal Recoveries - seeking nature’s inspirations, stimulating growth, weeding undesirables, embracing the unexpected. Thank you for visiting! Mary

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