26/10/2026
A few months before I started my 5Rhythms teacher training, my Dad passed away suddenly but peacefully. Dad was a champion grower of chrysanthemums – he could grow ones as big as your head!
His growing career started at about the age I am now, and it took him years to refine his craft. When he died we had to be very careful who got his prize winning root stock.
Just after I came back from Module 1 in Spain, a friend of his who had overwintered the plants presented me with a lot of rooted cuttings from Dads final plants.
I took one with me to my first Emerging Waves class back at the end of April (first pic)
To be honest then we just planted them in a pot outside, kept them watered but didn’t do anything special like feeding or pinching out the side shoots. We just let them find their own way.
And grow they did...6 feet tall, lanky, lots of flower buds (instead of just one) and definitely not show-worthy!
They normally bloom in September or thereabouts if fed and nurtured, but the unseasonably warm weather means even now in late October, they are only just coming into flower.
Next year when I haven’t got just so much on my plate, I’ll pay them some more attention, learn from what I did (and didn’t do) this year and see how they fare.
Regardless, I snipped some off and took them with me to my final Emerging Waves class, 6 months after the first. Something of Dad with me in the room. The deep red tablecloth was Mums. The vintage suitcase I lug my gear around in was one they use to take on holiday as a young married couple.
Emerging Waves are just what they sound like - our first foray into this world of teaching while always being a lifelong student. Allowing things to bloom in their own time. Always learning from what has gone before and continuing to revise and adapt.
