Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | By: Anita

A common.... what?

Alice in Wonderland is the 1951 animated feature produced by Walt Disney. This 13th Walt Disney Animated Classics series is based primarily on Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland.

Do you recall the scene when Alice walks through the garden of flowers and this conversation takes place:
Alice: I beg your pardon, but uhh... did you... oh, that's nonsense. Flowers can't talk.
Rose: But of course we can talk, my dear.
Marguerite: What kind of garden do you come from?
Alice: Well I don't come from any garden...
Marguerite: Oh, do you suppose she's a wild flower?
Alice: Oh no, I'm not a wild flower...
Rose: Just what specie, or shall we say, genus, are you, my dear?
Alice: Well, I suppose you call me a genus, humanus, eh... Alice!
Marguerite: Ever seen an Alice with a blossom like that?
Snap-dragon: Come to think of it, did you ever see an Alice?
Marguerite: Yes, and did you notice her petals? What a peculiar color!
Snap-dragon: And no fragrance!
Marguerite: Hahaha! Just look at those stems!
Snap-dragon: Rather scrawny, I'd say.
Rose bud: I think she's pretty!
Rose: Quiet, bud!
Alice: But I'm not a flower!
Snap-dragon: Aha! Just as I suspected! She's nothing but a common mobile vulgaris!
Flowers: Oh no!
Alice: A common what?
Snap-dragon: To put it bluntly: a weed!
Alice: I'm not a weed!
Tulip: Well, you wouldn't expect her to admit it.
Lilac: Can you imagine!
Marguerite: Well, goodness!
Lily: Don't let her stay here and go to seed!
Other flower: Go on now!
Rose: Please, girls...
Violets: We don't want weeds in our bed!
According to dictionary.com the definition of a Weed is 1. a valueless plant growing wild, especially one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop. 2. any undesirable or troublesome plant, especially one that grows profusely where it is not wanted: The vacant lot was covered with weeds.

Since I’ve been working over at the greenhouse, I been handling a lot of plants. Like geraniums, impatiens, euphorbia, potato vines, petunias, torenias, salvia, verbena, lobularia, ostesperums, licorice, gazanias, calabrachoa, bacopa, marigolds, snapdragons, but oohh {shudder} not those sweet nasty little violets or pansies, you see I am afraid of them. It’s ok, go ahead, laugh, everyone else does. But if you’ve ever seen the garden of flowers movie scene from Alice in Wonderland, you’ll understand why.

But here’s the thing. What I want to know is how does one determine whether or not a certain flower is or isn’t a weed? You see here is my dilemma. I picked these flowers. {sorry the picture is blurry}
They tend to grow somewhat wild along the side of the road where I take my daily walk and they only last for a short time. Now according to the definition from the dictionary these would be classified as weeds. But here’s where I would have to disagree. With these flowers sitting in the vase I think their definition has changed, from common mobile vulgaris to a beautiful bouquet of phlox.

Do you agree or disagree with me?

Blessings

4 comments:

Anneliese said...

They don't look like weeds to me. Who does dictate what is a weed? Maybe it's all in the eye of the beholder.

krystle ann-marie said...

This reminds me of when we were picking out flowers for our wedding. And I jokingly said I wanted pansies everywhere. ;)

Unknown said...

Weeds are only plants that you dont want. So a rose would be considered a weed if you didn't want it.

Anonymous said...

She's not a snapdragon... she's an iris.