RedShift

Seasonal Transitions

Mary Wynne-Wynter — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:44:48 +0000

Seasonal transitioning is not always easy for New Englanders. If you doubt that, look at how people dress when the weather is unseasonably warm. You’ll see people out and about and looking rather bizarre in shorts, flip flops and tank tops on a warm winter’s day in Boston.

I personally love transitional fashion. For example, white jeans with boots and a leather jacket. So I never really understand the urgency to wear beachwear in the city in March.

But when it comes to gardens I know I’ve succumbed to the irresistible temptation to plant as soon as ground is thawed and the sun is warm. I also know all too well, the lingering regret of jumping the gardening shark and finding everything I’ve rushed to plant, dead from a cold snap or late spring frost.

So I believe that “transitional contingencies” are an important piece to getting started with your garden, especially when spring comes early and unseasonably warm, like it has this year in Boston. I touched on the subject in my RedShift Gardens blog post Priorities by up the following questions:

If I plant early:

When is the temperature safe enough?
What has to come in?
What can stay out?
How much work is involved?
Is it worth it?

Temperature

It depends on the 1) the plant and 2) where its planted and 3) how its planted.
Plants in protected areas and in containers have a better chance of surviving a cold snap then those planted in ground, in an open area.

Which plants?

Some plants, like pansies, will bounce back after being snowed on all night even below freezing.

Some herbs will be ok under 45 degrees, but others, like basil, are at risk. Its easy to look up and most plants are labeled with minimum required temperature.

How much work is involved?

Well I just did this. I planted balcony containers a week ago: window boxes and pots. I had begonias, pansies, alyssum and herbs in 8″ – 10″ pots. I brought the begonias and basil indoors when the temperature dropped to 45 degrees. I brought the rest in when it dropped below 40 degrees. I live in a very small studio but I’d made some space on a table top and floor corner with no rug. I made sure I had clear plastic saucers for every container, just in case. It takes 5 minutes to bring them all in, and 5 minutes to bring them back out. I would rather not have plants on my table and on the floor but its an extremely minor inconvenience and in any case they are lovely.

So to be safe I recommend:

Plant in containers
Watch the forecast and think of mid-forties as the limit.
Have a space ready to bring the containers indoors.

Is it worth it?

Its worth it if planting early is aligned with your priorities. It definitely is aligned with mine, particularly my immediate gratification desire! I don’t want to start with litte plants in May that may take months to fill out. I feel the same about spending a lot of money on large plants in May. I think there’s just as much risk in that (although many garden centers do guarantee unconditionally).

Also, there are benefits to plants having time to acclimate while temperatures are still often low. Mine just took off like crazy and its been less than a week. The garden centers are uncrowded, the stock is fresh, and you’ll be enjoying large healthy plants within weeks if you put a bit of effort into seasonal transitional garden contingencies. And just like the fashion police, the garden police will have nothing to critique!

Happy gardening from The Flower Whisperer and don’t forget:
Real men love pansies!

Priorities

Mary Wynne-Wynter — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:24:55 +0000

Its That Time of Year – But Earlier!

The temperature is dropping but we’re expecting a remarkably warm spring. This means a longer gardening season and more opportunities for starting early. But for many people, the problem still exists called “how do I start?”. Well, the first thing I advise is “don’t worry!”. Not only should this be fun, but this year the fun starts even earlier.

But I do understand. There are so many choices, so much information available, and past experiences (good and bad). It can be overwhelming and lead to a desire for a plan. But plans aren’t much fun and can make getting started even more burdensome.

I prefer setting a few priorities, three maximum. Any more becomes a list and lists aren’t fun either. I’ll use my own priorities as an example.

Priorities: Mary’s Balcony

Organization
Get a handle on indoor plants in my 13th floor studio where I live and work. They’ve been a joy all winter but are out of control, have taken over, are tired, need consolidation, dormancy, and to be moved outdoors.
Instant Gratification!
Start growing immediately for immediate multi-sensual enjoyment: color, beauty, fragrance, flavor (culinary herbs), and artistic expression and arrangement.
Business Preparation!
Start stocking some live plants and supplies, and ensure plant rehab. space for client needs as required.

Its also important to me to minimize waste: time, money, plants, trash.

Its simple. Once you have priorities the rest evolves. So when I have initial consultation with clients, a lot more gets accomplished quickly if they just tell me what they don’t like and then we then we can figure out together their 3 (or fewer) priorities.

So what happens next? How to start? Again, I’ll be the example:

First steps: Mary’s Balcony

Take stock!

Put everything out including: existing plants, pots and window boxes, soil etc. The following 4 photos show my stock-taking, including: 2 lovely fragrant geraniums that needed re-potting, 4 small cyclamen plants that needed consolidating into a single pot before putting them into a dormant state, 3 large begonia plants that bloomed all winter long but had become overgrown and messy, 8″ and 10″ inexpensive plastic pots with clear saucers, 4 empty but soil-filled window boxes, two 3-shelf chrome carts.

Taking stock is not a big deal, but makes getting started so much easier once you see what you have.
Re-pot, consolidate, cull!

This second step helps you gain space and have a less cluttered look because you’re combining many smaller plants into fewer larger plants.

The first photo shows the consolidated cyclamen. I’d bought them at Mahoney’s last November and they bloomed all winter in four treasured, small, Royal Stafford pots that I’ve had for decades. But the pots are breakable so not really suitable for my windy balcony. An although its still throwing a few new buds, the yellowing leaves are a sign the plant is tired. By mid-April I’ll put the consolidated cyclamen into dormancy and then bring it out again for next late fall and winter. So although I’m not a huge fan of mixed pots, I think this will be a gorgeous multi-colored flowering cyclamen plant next winter, that will still fit on my cold windowsill – a spot I know they thrive in.

The following photo shows the re-potted herbal geraniums. I believe one is a rose specimen and the other (variegated) is apricot. I bought them at Ricky’s in Somerville at the end of the season last year, and they’ve done beautifully but had outgrown the Royal Stafford pots. I have them each in an 8″ pot and they are already taking off. And the fragrance is devine!

The begonias were already in 8″ pots and I think that’s large enough. They are still covered with spectacular blooms but they need some cutting back and TLC. I feel a bit of a traitor but I’m anxious to get them out because they are just too big and messy for my indoor studio.
Purchase!

You’ll find that doing steps 1 and 2 will allow you to purchase additional plants with a lot less stress and confusion. I still prefer to not buy everything all at once and if possible, split it among more than one supplier.

I knew I wanted pansies because because they will thrive even in a cold snap so they’re perfect for this time of year. I wanted them specifically for the window boxes. I bought approx. 16 small plants at Ricky’s and added 3 small pots of white alyssum for contrast and scent.

Ricky’s also had some unusual herbs so I picked up a delightful small-leaf basil and a purple basil. Both of them are extremely fragrant.

Later that evening I went to the Hame Depot garden center and bought few more small pots of herbs: rosemary, lavender, dill.

I also picked up another bag of soil and 4 small Kolanchoe plants to put in the now empty Royal Stafford pots. I’m very happy replace the overgrown plants with a few neat, small, brightly flowering pots on my indoor windowsill.
Plant!

Planting is the fun part when you have what you need, know where everything is going, and have the space. I prefer to not buy more than I can plant within a 24 hour period. Its not a hard and fast rule but a decent guideline. But what’s most important is to water thoroughly, When its colder, its easy to assume the plants won’t need the same amount of watering. With most flowering plants, that’s a mistake.

A good planting habit is: complete the job! Good watering, clean-up, arrangement and display are all important – particularly when you’ll face what I’ll call “transitional contingencies”. I’ll address that topic in my next post. What its about is how to deal with the following:

If I plant early:
- When is the temperature safe enough?
- What has to come in?
- What can stay out?
- How much work is involved?
- Is it worth it?
I know. It sounds daunting. But this is Boston after all!

But for now, here are a few shots of the completed plantings for this first phase of my balcony project. Can you notice how quickly the plants are adapting and already flourishing? Its been 5-6 days – that’s all. So there’s a real benefit to starting early. But most importantly, I took care of my 3 priorities and followed steps that made it fun, kept the cost low, and eliminated waste.

You can do the same and hopefully my example will make that easier for you.

One last thing. If you scroll to the bottom, you’ll also see that I have a “visitor” – a glorious Peregrine female hawk that I’ve named Baket. I think she approves.

Happy Gardening from The Flower Whisperer and don’t forget –

Be a Flower!

Facebook Crowd Sourcing

Mary Wynne-Wynter — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:32:47 +0000

A year ago I decided to to start-up a part-time flower gardening business to correspond with my professional service practice. I asked facebook friends to help me decide on my title: Flower Whisperer. I received great input from 6-10 people and that’s all I needed.

So this past week I made a similar facebook crowdsource request about magnetic Flower Whisperer signs for my car. Again, the exercise was both extremely valuable and lots of fun. I can’t say enough about the importance of feedback for the solo entrepreneur. I should mention that this is a small $ investment, but the time cost adds up. More importantly, I look at the problem and the multitude of options with only one set of eyes. Its easy to lose sight of what I want. Friends’ first impressions were most helpful including:

That one’s nice but just not you.
I like that one a lot, but I’m not sure what you’re trying to sell with it.
That one really pops and grabs my attention.
The pictures on that one look just like what you deliver for people.

The only problem is that it got confusing on facebook because I posted quite a few sign design options as the feedback and comments came in. So I’m summarizing here and even adding a few more options. I’m not there yet and its worth getting right!

To summarize, I find the following are useful techniques for getting feedback:

Instead of asking open-ended questions, put something out there: a description, a sketch – something friends can react to. Make it easy for them.
Acknowledge everyone’s comments and why it was helpful. Give feedback on the feedback.
Let friends know the end result and their contribution to it. You won’t forget. Every time someone compliments my “Flower Whisperer” title I think of the friends who helped me choose.

Happy crowdsourcing!

Sign ideas -here’s the the choices
#1 – color bottom

#2 – black/red lady

#3 – flower boxes

#4 – black white lady

#5 – black petunia

#6 – daisy border

Your Trade

Mary Wynne-Wynter — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:15:12 +0000

If, like me, you’ve been a solo professional services provider for a decade or more, you may be ready to do some manual labor, to work with your hands, not to replace, but to inspire your practice.

I’m not talking about a hobby although a hobby you love could be a gateway to your trade. My hobby was flower gardening but I’d done very little of that after selling my house in the mid-90′s. But on an impulse I responded to an ad for garden center help and that led to my own gardening services “trade“.

There was discomfort: a nagging sense that I was giving up on my core work and purpose, that I was over-diversifying and unfocused. I rationalized that it was temporary work and provided great cross-training for my rowing. But those were half-truths. Over time I realized that The Truth was believing that my work was highly specialized and intellectual although I’m equally kinesthetic. And I don’t think I’m unique in holding this contradiction.

Now I’m clear about loving my work: both my trade and my professional services both of which are expressions through work, of body mind integration. Body and mind are one whether we recognize that or not. How could we not expect to hunger for more if we cut ourselves off from one or the other?

So it seems that my blogging sabbatical is officially over. For that, I thank the dirt and the flowers and the sweat.

The Settle

Mary Wynne-Wynter — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:17:54 +0000

My business is change facilitation and my sport is rowing. I’ve learned a lot about both from cox’ns who provide the inspiration for this 4th in a series of four posts about change leadership using social business initiatives as an example.

The first 3 posts were about:

Shifting the vantage point through willingness, not willfulness.
Releasing the fairy tale and attendant story-lines identified with what’s non-integral and non-sustainable.
Creating the conditions in which innovation and productive friction can take place by embracing different perspectives and individual lenses on the new direction.

This post is about execution and action which require one of the most important parts of a race or practice that the cox calls: the settle. A lot of business leaders get this wrong. They launch a new project with a racing start and push everyone to hold that pace indefinitely. But its the settle that results in purposeful attention, high quality and finding the optimal rhythm together. Just like in the racing shell.

Like cox’ns, business leaders facilitate the shift from urgent desire to unity and trust, through giving the right feedback at the right time. Doing so requires a multi-dimensional awareness, what you and your team sense, feel, believe and embody..not just what you know or want.

The settle can’t be confused with settling for less because its a moment by moment refusal to be less, especially when it hurts. It must be understood as the collective action that creates shared responsibility for aligning with the desired results. In social business, those desired results are some form of creating natural influence in your communities and networks and with your audience.

If you lead like a cox’n, that natural influence could show up as gold.

The Lens On It

Mary Wynne-Wynter — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:31:23 +0000

Its important to understand the difference between shift in belief and shift in perspective.

Beliefs shifts are identity, the “We’re the ones who.. (experience the world and our organization’s place in that world from a single present vantage point of power).”

That shared point of power is the one from which future opportunities, capabilities, culture, innovations, networks, relationships and processes are created. An example could be a shift from a push oriented to a pull oriented belief system from which a social business direction is created.

Team, partner, group, community and organizational members’ ability to shift will depend on both their individual desires and whether their individual complex systems of beliefs, assumptions and expectations align with or contradict the change intention.

But people will have vastly different perceptions about what, why and how. They’ll experience those through a personal lens involving their strengths, weaknesses, talent, skills, personality, risk tolerance, experience, maturity, shadow behaviors and many other factors.

A typical management response is to standardize and control in attempt to neutralize the impact of perception differences but the downside is to stifle innovation and productive friction. Trailer Park Boys provides an alternative.

If you’ve never seen or heard of it, Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian mockumentary about the residents of the Sunnyvale Trailer Park who share a Utopian vision of trailer park community including get rich quick schemes, getting high, circumventing the rules and regulations and staying out of jail. The stories center around three main characters who see the means to their desired fulfillment through different lenses.

Julian is tall, dark, handsome and a natural leader. He also has a glass of rum and coke permanently attached to his hand. A career criminal, Julian is the head of the extended Sunnyvale Trailer Park family and he always tries to take care of the people in the park, especially his best friends Ricky and Bubbles.

Ricky is Julian’s best friend and business partner, grows awesome dope, generally lives in his car, doesn’t always make the best decisions though and the boys often get in trouble as a result. However, Ricky’s heart is usually in the right place, especially when it comes to his family and friends.

Bubbles is the heart and soul of Sunnyvale, not to mention the smartest person in the park. If it were up to him Bubbles would lead a quiet life in the park. Unfortunately, he’s constantly getting caught up in Julian and Ricky’s schemes and is afraid they – or even he – will go to jail again.
Trailer Park Boys web site

There’s seven seasons of problem-solving, decision-making, change leadership, capability building, innovation and creative friction metaphor if you’re willing to think outside the trailer park.

The Fairy Tale

Mary Wynne-Wynter — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:59:45 +0000

Social business is a direction that requires a shifted vantage point, one from which you view the world as it is, not as it was.

Social platforms and technologies are a subset of a bigger evolutionary shift in which economics and ecology are the same and can no longer be at odds with each other. That applies to the ecology of business in exactly the same way as it applies to the ecology of the biosphere. Survival depends, or inter-depends, on it.

The shifted business is holistic, or integral, meaning that everything it does is good for “me, we, you and all”. The shift is easy to grasp when there’s products involved and you’re weighing profits against labor exploited, resources consumed and environmental footprint. In professional, financial, knowledge and creative service businesses many impacts are invisible but infinitely reverberate nonetheless, positively or negatively affecting “me, we, you and all”.

All the knowledge, thought, concepts, ideas, solutions, content and actions (including social direction) initiate at the vantage point, or intention “we are the ones who….”.

How you answer that, and live up to it, and tell your new story, defines your direction and its alignment with evolution, or devolution. Its no longer possible to intend it both ways. It hasn’t been possible for decades but now is the time to let go of the attachment to the old story, which in essence has been a fairy tale. Ending the old story and replacing it with a new one creates uncertainty but doesn’t have to be a dreadful thing. That’s why the tales end with: “And they lived happily ever after.”

The Vantage Point

Mary Wynne-Wynter — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:48:55 +0000

Established small business owners are conflicted about social business and the shift towards “pull” platforms. They try to move in the new direction but aren’t ready to let go of habitual practices.

They’re trying to grow and develop and at the same time protect and survive. They’ll go to great lengths to “sell” me on the rationalizations and justifications for their interruption-based sales and marketing tactics and their reporting-based internal systems, structures and procedures.

I’ve learned its impossible to convince anyone to shift his or her vantage point if that business owner doesn’t sense, is in denial about, or not not able to live up to, a new direction like social business. They’re just not there and can’t make “sense” of it. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re lost causes.

We just have meet them where they are, let them fail and flail without judging them or jumping to unwanted conclusions on their behalf. “If you don’t act now it will be too late” is an example of one of those assumptions (and one that I’m prone to if I’m not vigilant).

Every client has a vantage point: their personal, or cultural, system of beliefs, competencies and desires. Professional service providers have two options:

Tell them what’s wrong with where they are and what it costs them.
Meet and accept them where they are if they’ll own it, present the corresponding opportunity and facilitate the shift to a new set of beliefs, competencies and desires.

I don’t know the right framework for the second option, but I know its not a plan.

Conscious Defiance

Mary Wynne-Wynter — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:54:51 +0000

I’ve been defiant and it got me into trouble with whoever had the authority over that particular domain at that particular time. It created a contradiction in me because defiance made me feel alive, powerful and real. But the cost was very high so I feared it at the same time.

Its different now that I’m aware of it, and can define it as: Discernment Discipline + Natural Aggression = Conscious Defiance. I still get in trouble and although I don’t like it, I can be present with the resistance I meet.

My favorite conscious defiance metaphor is “Stick it to the man.” from the great movie School of Rock with crazy-defiant Jack Black.

But how do you stick it to the man in the midst of The Big Shift, Great Recession, The Reset, or whatever they call the massive changes we’re in. Pretty much everyone and everything looks like and acts like “the man”?

I think Eckhart Tolle’s Present Moment Reminder helps answer that:

“Change is absolutely necessary in this world, and the dissolution of many of the ego-based structures is necessary for humanity to survive. What’s happening isn’t ‘dreadfully bad.’ It needs to happen; the intelligence behind phenomena is doing it, so it’s a good thing.”

In other words, align with evolution, defy the temptation to do anything less and leave the rest to the field.

Fear of Aggression

Mary Wynne-Wynter — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:35:13 +0000

When I felt trapped and stuck in a life direction that I didn’t want and believed I had no other choice but to be in, I often dreamed of the Incredible Hulk smashing his way out of a cement box.

That dream was a gift because it gave me a visualization and metaphor that I used when I found myself in situations and circumstances that I couldn’t stand but couldn’t find my way out of. I got pretty good at smashing my way out of bad relationships, jobs, partnerships, crises etc. But the problem was that another would always pop right up to take its place.

So I tried other things like fighting harder for control over people and things in my life, setting more boundaries, screaming at the top of my lungs in my car, punching the pillows, plotting revenge and trying mostly unhealthy means of escape and distraction. But unlike Einstein’s, my universe remained an unfriendly place and I got tired.

Eventually I realized that my Incredible Hulk dream was showing me how to break out of the cement box of my own resistance and ego. The people and things trying to do me in and hold me back did not exist “out there” but in me.

Much later still, I learned to discern the difference between natural aggression and the typical way we think about it which is some form of “aggression is bad”. Natural aggression is absolutely fundamental to life: birth, love, creativity, art and change. I really got that at a gut-feeling, non-intellectual level when a read a passage from Florence Scovel Shinn about an impromptu pre-dawn visit with a friend to the Prospect Park Zoo:

A faint pink streak appeared in the East, then suddenly we heard a most tremendous uproar. We were near the Zoo and all the animals were greeting the dawn.

The lions and tigers roared, the hyenas laughed, there were shrieks and howls, every animal had something to say for a new day was at hand.

It was indeed most inspiring. The light slanted through the trees; everything had an unearthly aspect.

Then, as it grew lighter, our shadows were in front instead of behind us. The dawn of a new day!

Our shadows are in front of us now. An extremely powerful emotion is arising, individual and collective. Its natural aggression that Seth Roberts described as:

“the creative loving thrust forward, the way in which love is activated, the fuel through whose agency love propels itself.”

Denying natural aggression distorts it and turns it against ourselves. Everywhere we see the evidence that shows up as scarcity mentality, ultra-competitiveness, greed, excessive consumption, obsession with others’ transgressions and even violence and abuse.

I see and hear firsthand how hard it is for people to not attempt to escape and avoid these intensely powerful feelings despite their equally intense desire for a greater self and bigger game.

Because here’s the thing: these wild feelings are valuable pointers to the unrealized wild power within us. Now is the time to bust through the concrete walls that trap and distort it. Like I told someone earlier today: you’re going to bust-out anyway so why not roar, laugh and howl for your new dawn now and save yourself a lot of head-banging.