Poor Nelly died, but the vanilla scent's coming through;

"Vigorous, upright and bushy" is what it said on the tag attached to a yellowish perennial whose name I've since forgotten.

It makes you wonder just who writes those tags aiming to persuade plant shoppers to pick up a little brown stick which supposedly will turn into a "vigilant climber with large heavily scented blooms" or a "hardy shrub (which) tolerates any soil condition."

I'm a pretty good gardener, but over the years I've killed some plants. Growing clematis has proven especially challenging, starting with "Nelly Moser."

I'd carefully covered the roots with an upside-down clay pot and tenderly coached the first little green tentacles through the ugly cyclone fence I was trying to cover.

Nelly hesitated for a week or so, but then got going quite nicely.

Until June hit and the light changed and I found her hanging sun- dried and dead from the fence one evening.

Several purple "Jackmanii" suffered the same fate.

I hung my head in shame as clematis bloomed in yards up and down my street.

"There she goes, the clematis killer" they seemed to scream, purple-faced, as I passed them on evening walks.

It turns out that clematis-lovers have their own support group on Gadenweb.com - that makes me feel a little better.

Then there are ferns. So far, any fern in my custody has shriveled up and died.

I'm just waiting for it to happen again as there's a cluster of ferns in my new yard. They are thriving, so obviously they haven't noticed that I've moved in.

Finally, there was the little bonsai a friend gave me 15 years ago. What a tortured little thing - a conifer of sorts - it looked so miserable sitting there in its stone-covered dish it always made me sad. Of course it died. Swiftly. I felt so bad. Here was a plant that monks had slaved over for decades and I couldn't keep it alive for two months.

Turn to today's cover story on pages 11 and 12, where Pat Munts takes the drama out of bonsai and explains why the "mall-sai" I got wasn't raised by monks and probably close to death when I got it.

Also in this issue is a story about junk of all sorts and how many gardeners use pots, pails and wagons as untraditional planters - and Rik Nelson talks to a local interior design student who's won a national award for her innovative and eco-friendly store layouts.

Next week, Home is all about tools. What you need, how to store them and why no home is complete without a set of basic tools.

And there's this: older and not much wiser, I've planted yet another clematis at my front stoop. Light-pink and vanilla scented it looks like it's ready to bloom again.

Perhaps the curse is lifted?

Welcome Home!

Pia K. Hansen, Home Editor, piah@spokesman.com (509) 459-5427.

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