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Previous episode: Country Club Dance            Next episode: The Ricardos Dedicate a Statue

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Plot[]

Lucy is anxiously awaiting the day of the garden competition, where she hopes her beautiful tulips will beat out Betty Ramsey's, who has won the contest for the last three years in a row. Everything about her garden looks wonderful, except for the lawn, which needs to be mowed. Lucy pesters Ricky to mow the lawn, but he doesn't realize how important the contest is to his wife, and he goes off with Fred and Little Ricky to a baseball game having only mown half the lawn. So, Lucy tries to mow the lawn herself, and she ends up riding the power mower all over town, not knowing how to stop the machine. During her runaway mower trip, she accidentally cut down all of Betty's tulips and had to replace them with wax tulips. When Ricky gets home, Lucy demands that he mow the rest of the lawn, and he does so. However, it's too dark for him to see what he's doing, and he mows down all of Lucy's tulips! Like Lucy's idea for Betty's ruined garden, Ricky replaces Lucy's tulips with wax ones. The next morning, while waiting for the garden contest judges, it is very hot, and Ricky is panicking that the wax tulips will melt before being judged. And sure enough, both Lucy and Betty are disqualified for having wax tulips that melted. For once, a guilty Ricky has to do some fast explaining to a furious Lucy.

Trivia[]

  • Lucy's tulips are pink, Betty's are yellow.
  • We learn that Fred's middle name is Hobart.
  • When Lucy calls Ricky by his full name, she says "Enrique Alberto Ricardo y de Acha III." In episode #121, Ricky's first name was "Ricardo," and he also had the second middle name of "Fernando." Having his first name be "Enrique" makes more sense, though. Who would name their child Ricardo Ricardo?!
  • The official name of the trophy Betty's won for the past three years is the "Best Garden" cup.
  • Harry Munson is the one who got Fred, Ricky, and Little Ricky the Yankee tickets.
  • Lucy rides for a mile-and-a-half on the Boston Post Road against traffic!
  • Lucy left every lawn between her house and town half mowed.
  • The actress who portrays one of the judges is the same actress who played Mrs. Spaulding, who sold Ricky and Lucy their new Connecticut home. She was also the voice of the evil stepmother in Disney's Cinderella.

Quotes[]

  • Ethel: [Betty] really has a green thumb.

Lucy: If I win that prize tomorrow, she'll be green all over!

  • Lucy: (referring to wax tulips) How can you live with a substitute when you can have the real thing?

Ethel: I don't know. I've ben askin' myself ever since I married Fred.

  • Lucy: You know, the way [Betty] brags about the cross-pollination she does, you'd think she were a bee!
  • Ethel: (spots Betty coming) Shh! Here comes the Queen Bee!
  • Betty: Why, this is one of the prettiest gardens I've ever seen.

Lucy: Well, thanks, Betty.

Betty: For a beginner...

  • Lucy: And who do you think's gonna walk away with first [prize], Betty?

Betty: Well, three years in a row with the same bulbs, the same soil.

Lucy: The same shy, modest gardener...

  • Lucy: Husbands make me so mad! They're always promising they'll do somethin' for you, and then they don't do it!

Ethel: Well, that's one problem I never have with Fred.

Lucy: You don't?

Ethel: Nope. Never promises to do anything for me in the first place.

  • Lucy: What've you got to say [about not mowing lawn]?

Ricky: Well, it looks like you're married to a cad!

  • Lucy: But the grass is a foot high! What am I gonna do?

Fred: Maybe you could rent a couple of sheep for the day.

  • Lucy: Well, good! Then Ralph said that you could borrow his lawnmower any day you want, so it's all settled.

Ricky: Except that today is not the day I wanna borrow it.

  • Ethel: You go out there and help him, Frederick Hobarty y de Mertz I!
  • Lucy: Let's go.

Ethel: Oh, now wait- do you think it's safe to leave the children [Fred and Ricky] here all by themselves? They may get to fightin' again over that toy [lawnmower]!

Lucy: Well, I'll tell Little Ricky to keep his eye on them.

  • Lucy: It's got a crank. I guess you crank it like the old Model Ts, remember?

Ethel: That was quite a bit before my time.

Lucy: Oh, come now, Ethel.

Ethel: I only go back as far as the Stutz Bearcat and no farther!

  • Lucy: Oh, honey, you're not doin' it right!

Ethel: This is exactly the way we used to crank...

Lucy: Oh, the same way you used to crank, huh?

Ethel: Well, I've been watchin' those old movies on television. They do it there. The late, late show.

  • Ethel: (on phone with Grace Munson) But the last I heard, she was on a lawnmower headin' towards Main Street. No, I haven't been nippin' at the cooking sherry!
  • Ethel: Lucy, was there much damage?

Lucy: Well, every lawn between here and town is half-mowed...

  • Lucy: Well, you know that hedge out here that we were thinking of getting rid of?

Ethel: Yeah?

Lucy: We don't have to think about that anymore!

  • Lucy: The way people came out of their houses to watch me ride by [on the lawnmower], you'd have thought I was Lady Godiva!
  • Lucy: If I ever let my hair get dark at the roots, I'm afraid it's gonna be snow white!
  • Ethel: You can take your tulips and transplant 'em into Betty's garden.

Lucy: Ethel, I feel bad [about mowing down Betty's tulips], but not THAT bad!

  • Lucy: Wait a minute! Betty's tulips are yellow. I could never fool her with my pink ones. It won't work, thanks goodness!
  • Ricky: You know how Lucy said it was too dark out there to see what I was doin'?

Fred: Yeah.

Ricky: She was right!

  • Lucy: The judges are here! This is it!

Ricky: Yeah, this is it, alright!

  • Ricky: It was dark. Oh, it was so dark! It was darker than the inside of your sombrero!
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