Sylvia would grow just about anything. If she saw a broken off piece of plant while out shopping, she picked it up, put it in her purse or pocket, brought it home and stuck it in water till it got roots. Then voila! Another houseplant... like she needed another. If it had a seed pod, she'd pinch it off and try to grow it from seed. We always said Mom could plant a nickel and grow a money tree. Sister is still trying...no luck with the nickel but she did successfully grow a peach tree from a seed, and insists she shall eat peaches from it one day.
Years after she planted a seed she'd found in her pocket from Bermuda, Mom took a leaf to Longwood Gardens, where we learned it was called Jatropha Multifida. When it grew too big for the living room sometime during the 1970s, she donated it to the Philadelphia Zoo's Hummingbird House. This is one of its grandchildren, and is blooming this year. Each year in winter the tree drops its leaves and goes dormant until spring.
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