As far back as I can remember I was obsessed with gathering- "capturing" -wild flowers. I cut them, pulled them up by the root, pressed or dried them, and transplanted as many as I could. When I was 10 we moved to the suburbs, and I was given  a spot of my own to plant with my hopeful experiments.

Growing up in an Italian family virtually assured exposure to plant care and a menu of fresh herbs and vegetables, wherever they could be found. In spring we would carry big paper bags into the puplic fields and weed-filled "empty" lots of the city to pick the tender first leaves of dandelions, dame's rockets, and chamomile. I was taught which to pull up by the roots, and which to leave behind to spread for the future.

As an adult, living in apartments with no gardens at all,  ANY plant would satisfy me. I picked the sidewalk weeds and broke off dormant branches of low trees to "force" indoors. I kept the fresh and the dead dried stalks. One night I came home to an apartment filled with thousands of floating seed puffs rising from an enormous dry bouquet of wild Asters!

Now that I have acres to plant, I still treasure - and tranplant - countless wildflowers among the commercially cultivated varieties.