Balsam
Once when I was walking my old dog, Rhombus, through the ally that goes behind the Lutheran Church, I saw a very pretty plant growing there at the edge of the ally, under the trees. Since that was my usual route to walk, I looked at the plant each day and when the blossoms turned into seed pods, I collected some seeds.
The next spring, I planted the seeds and had my own pretty plants. I admired this plant because of it's fierce determination to live. There were no other plants like it anywhere around. It was the prettiest plant around. It was like a snapdragon blossom, but not quite.
It took me a long time to discover the name of this plant and when I did, I found that it was balsamina. For a number of years I kept this plant going and I always enjoyed it's pretty flowers. The flowers were different colors than the parent plant that I had originally collected the seeds from, but they were always beautiful.
This year, I found a seed packet labeled Balsam, and the plant which was pictured was the balsamina that I'd had some years past. I've planted some seeds and several of the seeds have sprouted. One plant is a nice size now, and two others are still in the two leaf, just through the ground stage. I'm looking forward to having these pretty flowers to look at again.
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