🔮 When the World Around Becomes Too Gray: Plant a Tree. Eat a Donut. Keep going.

Sunshine: Smokey, what do we do when the world around becomes too gray?
Smokey: Plant a tree.
Sunshine: And if that does not help?
Smokey: Plant another one.
Sunshine: And eat a donut.
Smokey: Not strictly necessary, but statistically beneficial.

If you have been feeling a little worn down lately, you are not alone.

You already know about the headlines. We do not need to list them. You have probably seen them today before breakfast.

We are not here to pretend that is not happening. It is happening. And it is a lot. But here is the thing we keep coming back to, the thing that has been true for as long as people have had hands and a patch of ground: when the world feels out of control, you can still plant something.

Gardening is not an escape. It is an answer. When you put a tree in the ground, you are making a quiet statement. You are saying that you expect there to be a future. That you intend to be in it. That shade and fruit and flowers still matter, and you are going to make sure they exist in your corner of the world.

That is not naive. That is courageous in the most ordinary and underrated way.

One tree, planted this season, might give you fruit in a few years. It might give butterflies somewhere to stop. It might give a bird a place to nest. It will almost certainly give you something to look at on a hard day that reminds you the world still contains beauty, and that you put some of it there. And if one tree does not quite do it? Plant another one.

Dostoevsky said beauty will save the world. We think a mango fruiting in your backyard counts. So does a Magnolia opening on a quiet morning.

Do not skip the donut.

A donut is a small, simple, completely unnecessary thing. That is exactly the point. It is not productive. It does not solve anything. It is just good, and sometimes that is the whole reason. In a world that constantly demands you be useful and informed and concerned, eating a donut is a quiet act of being human. You are allowed to enjoy a small thing on a hard day. You do not have to earn it.

Rest a little. Then go put something in the ground. Anything that will grow and flower and remind you that beautiful things are still happening whether the headlines mention them or not.

We have the plants. You bring the donuts.

🛒 Plant a sweeter world: grow color and flavor

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📚 🍩 ❓❓❓ 😱 5000 plants. 60000 photos. 25 years of notes. Estimated pages: ??? OH NO.

After posting about our search for a mysterious fragrant Cerbera, this arrived in our inbox:

"Bless you all for finding this and sharing… Love those books your research cats are hunting through. Where do I get those, too?"

Smokey & Sunshine looked at each other. Then at the books. Then at the donuts.

Sunshine: I knew someone would ask about them.
Smokey: About the plants in the photo?
Sunshine: No. The books. People want to read them.
Smokey: Most of those books don't exist. We made them up for the photo.
Sunshine: "The Apocynaceae Family" sounded very convincing. Very distinguished. Like the Corleone family, but with more flowers and fewer offers you can't refuse.
Smokey: The Corleones were also toxic. So the comparison holds. Did you notice you spilled donut glaze on the cover and called it peer review.
Sunshine: That is simply how great botanical discoveries are made.
Smokey: That explains the investigation board. And the suspects list.
Sunshine: The point is — now people want to read the books. All of them.
Smokey: The books. Do. Not. Exist.
Sunshine: Exactly. Which is why we need to convince the Top Tropicals humans to write them. They have 5000 plants, 60000 photos, and 25 years of notes. The raw material is right there.
Smokey: That would be a very large book.
Sunshine: Excellent. We can call it The Encyclopedia of Plants That Smell Better Than Donuts.
Smokey: That narrows it down to exactly one chapter.
Sunshine: A very good chapter though. Jasmine alone would fill at least twenty pages.
Smokey: While we wait for the humans to write it, the actual Top Tropicals plant encyclopedia is at toptropicals.com. Over 5,000 plants. No donuts involved.
Sunshine: ...yet.