THINGS THAT BRIGHTEN LIFE

In the winter when Nature turns the landscape into black and white, we might enjoy the beauty of snow though I prefer mine in picture form on postcards.  However, it takes little time before cars have turned snow black and ugly and the yellow graffiti by dogs on snowbanks somehow isn't really aesthetic over the carbon deposit laid down by traffic.  Occasionally, snow on the holly bushes, bright red with berries amidst the green leaves, is pleasing to the eye if one can ignore the mountains of snow that had to get shoveled around it.

If you have had geraniums outside during the summer and can bring them in, they will reward you for their extended life of bloom all winter long.  In fact, many flowers express appreciation for their warm lodgings.  Geraniums require less care than most blossoming flowers needing far less effort on human part.

When world news was at its worst, a gift from a friend; just a few tiny green leaves in a pot, like an un-named orphan have grown to be this.  It took a long time to pore over 600 pictures of plants in the primrose family, but I finally hot th jackpot, finding the Latin name of the variety which I can't find at the moment. (a bit of teeth gnashing would be heard were you here). The blossoms grow, two or three in a vertical row on a stem.  

Plants are preferable to me than pets.  If they die, they pass away quietly and leave no strong odor.  The don't ask to be watered before I wake in the morning or after I have gone to bed for the night.  There is no litter box to clean and they do not shed hair all over the place.  Best of all, they don't charge up $500 dental bills to vets, nor enormous surgery bills.  All they require is a bit of light, air, water, and occasionally a squirt of plant food in water.

Mostly I love to grow African Violets because of the many blossoms they have, and because the blossoms live on the plant for a long time.  I bought a tiny plant in Virginia last Fall.   It has a variegated leaf with a snow white, curly flower.   African Violets (they don't all come from Africa, by the way) need less watering when they are in pots with a reservoir under them. 

There is so much one can do with houseplants.  They can be planted in teapots that have lost covers.  Since there is no drainage, I put pebbles and charcoal on the bottom of the pot.  The charcoal keeps things from getting sour (as in a fish tank)  If it gets over watered, tip the spout as though you are pouring the tea and drain the excess. I've started new plants from a slip or leaf from the plants of friends.  I do buy potting soil, peat moss, plant food, perlite, insecticide, and a few other useful goodies but growing flowering plants has been the least expensive hobby I have ever had...and there have and are many.

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Sometimes accidents happen.  I had a pot of lilies (the original bulb was rescued from an office waste basket in 1978).  It was near a dark-leafed shamrock oxalis which decided to drop seeds into the lily pot.  The seeds germinated and the pot now looks as though it is carrying a bouquet.  The oxalis has small pink flowers in tiny clusters at the end of a stem (which you can see on the top left pot rim below).  My plant was chance.  I was in a jazz club one day and spotted a pot full of the exact blend.  The owner told me it had been a gift from a friend more than ten years previously.  Seeing the coincidence of my own arrangement was a delightful surprise.  I will continue to brighten my life in the many ways I have learned give me pleasure....plants are just one of those ways.