A few weeks ago, I found the perfect plants for the altar at my daughter’s upcoming wedding: New Zealand Tea Trees. At the check-out line, I happily told the clerk why I was buying the trees. “I’m going to baby them until the wedding,” I said, smiling.

“Not too much. Don’t baby them too much,” insisted the woman in line behind me, sounding like the World’s Expert on New Zealand Tea Trees.

The thought crossed my mind that I should look up how to care for the trees on the internet, but then I thought of the woman’s advice and I thought of New Zealand…a rugged terrain. The trees would be fine. So I checked on them often and kept them watered…but not too much.

I’ve been so pleased with my purchase that I even offered the New Zealand Tea Trees to a friend for her daughter’s wedding, just one week after our wedding.

A few days ago, I examined the trees. One is thriving. And the other looks…dead.

I flew to the internet to look up New Zealand Tea Trees. “Extremely difficult trees to maintain. Can die within a matter of hours.”

WHAT?

What kind of tree dies within a matter of hours?

Don’t bother telling me that I should have looked up New Zealand Tea Trees before purchasing them, or at the very least, as soon as I got home.

Never mind that I am now back at square one for the altar for my daughter’s wedding, and I’m scared to tell my friend that I’ve killed the tree that I was going to loan her for her daughter’s wedding.

You don’t need to remind me that, once again, I hit the 85% point and missed that critical 15% remainder…which might have kept my tree alive.

Right now, I’m too busy trying to bring it back to life. Wish me luck!