Botanical Lily Pad

Of all the flowers in the whole world, Chickpea's favorite came from lily pads.

'Do you mean a lotus flower?' Someone had asked him once, confused, but Chickpea had only shaken his head and corrected them. Lily pads had the best flowers ever! They were a pretty pink with a sunshine yellow middle and sat on top of the water all cozy looking. Sometimes, when Chickpea was looking for frogs at the lake, he would see all kinds of neat little bugs buzzing around the pretty pink petals. It was no wonder that his favorite amphibians loved them so much! Nice seats from the leaves with a bonus buffet!

So Chickpea had decided to grow one all his own... only....

"This doesn't look like a seed."

The little green Bao took the farming hat off his head and rolled the weird looking mound of vines around between his gloved paws. Was this really what a baby lily-pad looked like? He was pretty sure that seeds were little and round, not all messy like this.

Then again, Chickpea had never actually tried to garden before.

Scratching his head, Chickpea put the weird seed down and turned to the most trusted and reliable source of information anywhere: the Frog Finder's Forum! It was the hippest and hottest place to go look at cool pictures of frogs and also talk about the different frogs you could see! It was basically the coolest and everyone was really smart, so maybe somewhere there would know what to do!

After clicking around on the computer for much too long, though, Chickpea found himself no more closer to the mystery of the lily pad seed than he was before. One helpful netizen suggested that maybe he should just plant it and see what happened. Probably in some dirt with lots and lots of water since they usually grew in ponds.

Thinking this was a good enough idea, Chickpea rushed to get a nice, big, clear bowl. Some sloppy mud was just fine for the dirt (and also fun to play in!). Chickpea spread out the weird little vine seed out in the mud, only the top green bit poking out, before filling the rest of the bowl up with water. Submerged, the little seed didn't seem to be doing anything just yet.

Sighing, Chickpea placed it in a nice, sunny spot in his window and promised to check on it every day.

---

For the first seven days or so, nothing really happens with the weird little Lily Pad seed.

Then, on the eighth day after a long night's rest, a little vine has poked out of the top of the water's surface and was basking in the sunlight!

Chickpea felt like he could cheer, so he hopped around and did a little dance before going to get his breakfast. He made sure to take a nice picture to update his forum friends with his progress, then gave it a big drink of water to start out the day.

Actually, over the first few days before the sprouting, Chickpea had had to water the seed a LOT. Every morning he would wake up and the bowl would be half drained of all the water. Chickpea would fill it back up, then when he would go to bed it would be half empty again! So Chickpea would fill it back up before he laid down. Then the next morning it would be half empty again, and it was a repeating cycle over and over and over...

Over the next few days after the sprouting, Chickpea found that the little plant was even thirstier than before! Soon, one little sprouted tentacle became two, then three, and then five. They reached out towards the sunlight in the window, creeping over the edges of the bowl like little sniffing snakes. Soon enough, the oldest vine's tip turned a deep red and started to puff up. It unfurled to become a big leaf- the lily pad!

The leaf was weird, though. It was all red instead of being pretty and green like the ones at the lake. Every day another vine would turn into a leaf, but also a new vine would grow from the middle. Soon, Chickpea couldn't even see the top of the water because of all the vines and leaves! It was like they were all fighting to be on top!

The oldest leaf started to turn green after a while, too! When it was about halfway turned green, the second started to also turn red, and more and more until...

Well, you see, Chickpea wasn't sure. The little bowl inside his home was becoming quite cramped with all the vines and leaves and something really big trying to push it's way to the top. He was thinking that maybe the bowl was too small for the lily pad. But where could he take it?

Hmm... wasn't there a botanical garden somewhere in town?

---

It had taken some peeking, poking, and pecking but eventually Chickpea managed to sniff out where the Botanical Garden was. A nice person had shown him some papers to fill out for his very own place to grow things, too! However, when he came back the next day with his Lily Pad bowl in hand, that same person had frowned.

"Well... we don't really have any patches with water instead of dirt..." The person had rubbed their chin, thoughtful. All that Chickpea felt was very sad. His little ears drooped as he looked down at the struggling plant in his arms. "But..." And the person smiles warmly, then winked and placed a finger to their lips as if telling him a secret. "We have a fountain just over this way. I'm sure no one would mind if such a pretty plant was placed inside."

Chickpea gasped and eagerly followed behind the person. The fountain wasn't very large but it was still much bigger than the little bowl. With help from the gardener, Chickpea managed to place the Lily Pad into the waiting waters. It didn't look all that different, still sort of scrunched in on itself, but the gardener promised that if Chickpea came back the next day that it would look different.

So he did, eager, and found that the gardener hadn't lied. The lily pad, cramped in the bowl before, had spread itself out over the top of the water. It was like it had stretched out, all the leaves looking healthier and shiner than they had before. Chickpea bounced in place and wanted very much to do a little dance to show how happy he was.

That wasn't even the best part, though! The weird large bulbs that had been pushing from under the leaves had actually been flower heads! Three pretty, pink lily pad flowers were open, large and lovely in the light of the room. Chickpea leaned over the lip of the fountain the reach out and just barely touch a few soft petals with his paw.

All at once, Chickpea felt very proud of himself. He made sure to take lots of pretty pictures to show his friends when he got back home and promised to come back every day and check on his favorite flower.