Stop me if you think you've heard this one before

It's about my hibiscus.

It's all bloomy.

Twelve years ago it was a dry and leafless twig under a cedar in my garden. Mum was out there having a bit of a clear up when I first moved in. The garden was seriously overgrown and she was hacking about with a hoe. Her hoe gets stuck on the twig, she gives it a yank and out it comes, roots and all! "Oooo!" says she, "Sorry!" (to me, not the twig) (she's a bit nutty now, but she wasn't then).

After close inspection she declares it alive and suggests I stick it in a bucket of water. "Might be a nice surprise in that".

So it sat in a bucket of water on the back step all summer and winter. Iced over once or twice, it did. Come spring it produced a rather pretty leaf. I was mildly intrigued and plunked it in a pot of dirt. One or two more pretty leaves appeared that summer.

The following summer a rather voluptuous purple flower pops out. Then another. And another! Before long it looks like one of those shirts Hawaiian gentlemen favour. "Oooo!", says Mum, "it's an hibiscus! Well! I must say, I'm glad I rescued that".

Twelve years on it's nine feet tall, pops blooms at a rate of knots for weeks on end and dazzles all my visitors.

My brother was here last week. He commented on the dazzle and I launched into "you know, Mum found that under ..." and he says "yeah, yeah, I know, I've heard this one before" and waves me off with a flick of his hand!

He didn't risk a comment on my paint by number collection.