Lily in Full Bloom (4 page)

L
ILY TRIED TO TELL
R
OSETTA
that the seeds weren’t ready to be passed around. Of course she wanted to see them put to good use. But for now, she didn’t feel comfortable letting them go.

Rosetta, however, was very convincing. In the end, Lily agreed that Rosetta could hand out some of the seeds, but only to other garden talents. They could test them in their gardens. If there were any problems, they could tell Lily before she gave the seeds to the other talents. Lily didn’t want all the fairies to get excited and then find out the seeds didn’t work as she’d said they would.

But by the end of the afternoon, there didn’t seem to be much chance of that happening.

Lily herself had spent the day trying the seeds all over her garden. She threw a handful on a hollow log. She sprinkled some on two lanterns that were hanging near the front gate. She tossed seeds on a wicker garden basket, on a plant label, and even on the backs of her gardening gloves. Wherever she tried the panglory seeds, they sprouted—and quickly!

Lily was eager to find out if any of the other garden talents had tried the seeds. She flew off to see the results.

“Lily!” Aster cried. She stood up from her gardening when she saw Lily. “These seeds of yours are amazing!”

Lily glanced around Aster’s garden. She spotted the panglories. Then she realized they were covering the metal garden tools Aster was working with!

“Can I get some more?” Aster asked hopefully.

Bluebell’s garden was full of the little flowers, too. All her stepping stones were covered in colorful panglories. “They’re almost too pretty to step on now, aren’t they?” Bluebell said to Lily.

On her way to Rosetta’s garden, Lily found Iris watering the thick roots of the Home Tree. It was a chore the garden fairies took turns doing. Lily hadn’t seen Iris do it for ages.

“You know I don’t do much gardening anymore,” Iris said. She had once told Lily that growing things just didn’t come naturally to her, even though she still loved plants and flowers. “But these flowers, Lily…” Iris pulled her plant book from her bag. It was covered in cheerful blooms. Iris smiled proudly. “Even
I
can grow these!” she exclaimed.

Lily beamed. It was great that the seeds worked so well. But it was even better that Iris was excited about gardening again.

At last, Lily reached Rosetta’s garden. Rosetta flew to meet her at the front gate. She grabbed Lily’s hand and pulled her in.

“You’ve got to see this!” Rosetta told her. She led Lily to an out-of-the-way corner of her garden. Rosetta pulled back a curtain of climbing roses. Behind it was a small pond—a favorite quiet spot of Rosetta’s.

Lily gasped. All over the surface were flowering panglories!

“They really do grow
anywhere
!” Rosetta cried.

Lily sighed with happiness. Her invention was a success! She finally felt ready to share her panglories with all of Pixie Hollow.

That evening at dinner, each table had a special floral decoration in the center.

The garden fairies got to the tearoom early. They sat at their table, trying to stay calm. But they were giggling with anticipation. They couldn’t wait to see everyone’s reaction!

Slowly, the tearoom filled up with hungry fairies and sparrow men.

“What in Never Land is it?” Lily heard Fira say at the light-talent table.

“How does it work?” Silvermist asked at the water-talent table. “Are those flowers really—”

“—growing out of that rock?” Rani finished for her.

At the animal-talent table, Fawn was holding up the decoration. She studied the bottom. She looked very confused.

Tink was the first one to come over to the garden fairies. She was carrying the centerpiece from the pots-and-pans talents’ table. It was a stone about the size of a fairy’s hand, with purple, yellow, and pink panglories growing on the top.

“I don’t suppose,” Tink began, “any of you know anything about these?”

Aster covered up a giggle. Bluebell tried not to smile. Lily looked at Rosetta, who was biting her lip to keep from laughing. They couldn’t hold it in any longer. Everyone at the table burst into laughter.

Finally, Lily recovered enough to answer. “Yes,” she said. “We made them!” She felt proud from her wingtips to her toes.

“They’re Lily’s amazing new invention!” Rosetta added.

“They’re called panglories,” Aster put in. “And they’ll grow
anywhere
!”

Tink looked skeptical. “Really?” she asked. “Anywhere?”

Lily opened her mouth to reply. But Fern beat her to it. “Uh-huh,” Fern said. “They grew on my wheelbarrow.”

“And my gardening book!” said Iris.

“And my pond!” cried Rosetta.

The garden fairies went on and on. Meanwhile, something on Tink’s bunch of flowers caught Lily’s eye. She leaned in for a closer look.

Huh, that’s funny,
Lily thought. Two or three of the flowers had faded leaves on their stems. So far, all the panglories from the fourth batch of seeds had been perfect in every way. Their color was perfect. Their shape was perfect. They were perfectly healthy.

She shrugged it off.
Maybe these just need a bit more water,
she decided. Then she turned her attention back to Tink and the garden fairies.

“You know, Tink,” Rosetta teased, “I think the garden-talent fairies have something special here. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!” She knew Tink hadn’t meant to extend the challenge the way she had—putting down the other talents’ important jobs. But if any fairy could put a challenge to good use, Tinker Bell was the one to do it.

Tink smiled and turned to go. “It’ll knock your sun hats off!” she said as she flew away.

It could have just been Lily’s imagination…but didn’t Tink look a tiny bit worried?

W
HEN
L
ILY OPENED HER EYES
the next morning, the panglories were the first thing she saw. She had carried home a bunch of decorations the night before. The other fairies had been so impressed! Even Queen Clarion had given the flowers a second look. Lily’s glow had flared with pride.

She bent low over a centerpiece. “Well done!” she said to the flowers.

Then she caught a glimpse of something among the leaves. She wondered if this was the same bunch that had had faded leaves the night before.

Lily studied them more closely. Several leaves were looking worse than faded—they looked downright gray. She checked the other centerpieces. Nearly all of them had at least a couple of faded leaves. On the worst ones, entire stems were spotted gray.

Lily sat in her desk chair and looked out the window toward her garden. She felt an urge to check the panglories there. It probably wasn’t a big deal. Maybe it was how these seeds had been planted.

Or maybe the flowers didn’t like being indoors or planted in rocks. All the same, she wanted to look them over, just to make sure.

In her garden, Lily zipped from one patch of panglories to another. She started with the first ones she’d planted in the sandy soil. She ended up at the fourth batch growing on the shed. Each time she stopped, her heart sank a little bit more. All the panglories in the garden were as gray as the ones in the centerpieces. If anything, her garden panglories seemed worse.

Lily fretted over the plants. Were they sick? But nothing else about them had changed. That was the funny thing. None of them looked droopy or wilted.

They were just very,
very
pale.

Bumble buzzed over to Lily from a poppy he’d been nestled in. Lily looked at her friend and then back at the flowers. “What’s going on?” she muttered. “What happened to all the bright colors?”

Lily sighed. For a moment, she let herself slump against the gate. Everything had been going so well! But she didn’t let herself feel down for long. She straightened up and turned to the nearest panglory patch. “Well, we’ll figure it out. You’ll have your color back in no time!” she said cheerfully.

For the rest of the day, Lily took care of the panglories. She sprinkled them with big pinches of fairy dust. She tickled them under their petals. She even watered them an extra time before heading home for the evening.

The next morning, Lily entered the garden feeling hopeful. But when she saw the panglories, she stopped short. “Oh, no!” she cried.

The flowers were no better. In fact, many looked faded right through the petals.

Lily spent the whole day in her garden. She was so worried about her flowers, she no longer cared about Tink’s challenge. She just wanted to see the colorful blossoms growing strong again. She watered. She tended. She weeded. She even asked a light fairy to shine some extra light on the pansies.

“Let’s hope this works,” she said to Bumble as the sun was setting.

Despite all her hard work, the flowers were no better the next day. Now entire patches of panglories were gray. There was no sign of the bright shades of purple, yellow, or pink they’d once had.

Lily hovered in the middle of her garden. She looked around. She hated to say it. She hated to even think it. She loved all plants—even the bossiest weeds. But her panglories were becoming a problem.

Even so, Lily never thought about giving up on them. She flew to Rosetta’s garden for advice. She found her friend tending a bed of young snapdragons.

“Rosetta, I have a question for you. Are your panglories having any problems?” Lily asked.

“Oh,” replied Rosetta. “You mean the color loss?”

Lily was taken aback by Rosetta’s candid remark. Rosetta took her arm. “Here, I’ll show you,” she said.

She led Lily to her pond. All the panglories floating on it were different shades of gray. Some looked almost white.

Lily gasped. “Yours too?”

Rosetta nodded. Lily could see pity in her eyes. “And Aster’s and Bluebell’s and Fern’s and Iris’s,” Rosetta added.

“What?” Lily cried. “Since when? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s been happening slowly. I guess it started a couple of days ago,” said Rosetta. “No one had the heart to tell you. We thought maybe yours were still doing well. We didn’t want to worry you.”

Lily buried her head in her hands. Disappointment washed over her like a wave.

Rosetta touched Lily’s arm. “Don’t worry, Lily,” she said. “We’ll figure out what went wrong. Maybe we can fix it.”

Lily looked up and forced a smile. “I don’t care about the invention challenge. But I’ve spent a lot of time with those flowers now,” she said.

“You care about them,” Rosetta said.

Lily nodded. “I want them to be happy and healthy. And they seemed to be working so well. But without their color…” Lily sighed. “Maybe I need a break from the panglories. I’ve barely taken care of my other plants. I guess they could use more attention.”

Rosetta promised to drop in on Lily later. Then she went back to her garden.

Lily was halfway to the front gate when she heard Rosetta gasp. Lily turned.

Rosetta was staring at a snapdragon in disbelief. “Lily, look!” she cried.

Lily flew over. “Is it just me,” Rosetta said, “or do these leaves look like—”

“The fading leaves on the pan-glories!” Lily cried. “It can’t be.” She shook her head.

Rosetta gasped again. Now she was looking at some irises. “Look! Here, too!” she cried. Sure enough, the bottom halves of the stalks were strangely gray.

“And here,” said Lily. She had noticed a few buttercups, colorless up to their petals. “Oh, no,” she moaned. “What’s going on?”

There was only one explanation. But Lily forced it out of her mind. She didn’t want to think about it—not until she checked the other gardens.

Lily stopped off at each of the other garden fairies’ gardens. What she found was not good. She grew more and more concerned with each visit.

Fern was crazy with worry over her lavender plants. She had found grayish spots on their stems that morning.

Aster’s weeping willows looked very pale. Aster wasn’t looking much better herself.

Bluebell’s ivy plants were still climbing nicely. But it looked like the lower halves of the vines had been drained of all color.

And back in her own garden, Lily found many flowers that showed signs of fading.

Lily plopped down on a tree stump. She put her head in her hands. Her panglories weren’t perfect. And now it seemed that the rest of the garden plants might have the same problem.

Whatever was wrong with the pan-glories, could it be…contagious?