I Did Not Kill It!...Yet!

  My sister and brother-in-law are in the traveling mood!  They have bought a delightful camper trailer to tow behind their truck and are planning on seeing the country!  It was a huge step for them to sell their house and downsize to a camper but they did it.  I am proud of them! That did mean that she had to part with all of her beautiful plants, though.  Susan has always been one that could take the dumpiest place and turn it into a showplace within just a short time.  Her knack for helping plants grow to their full potential is amazing so parting with her "babies" had to be difficult.  The fact that she brought several plants here honored me, to say the least, but, in a way, it also terrified me. While I love plants, too , and love puttering around in the greenhouse, I always keep "easy to grow" plants.  She has ones that take work, skill and a good bit of luck.

  One of the plants that she left with me was her prized African Violet. This thing was always full of blooms and so very healthy while at her house.  This thing was also one that terrified me....especially when I read her instructions.  "Keep the plant in a light place but not in direct sunlight.  Do not let the temperature get below 60 degrees nor above 80 degrees and keep in a draft free place..." Uh, oh!  That right there should have been warning enough.  The Little Bayou House does not have central air conditioning nor central heat.  We depend on open windows and Bay breezes for cooling.  We depend of woodburning stoves for heat.  During the first three nights that the plant was in my care, the temperatures dipped into the 30s and I left it in an unheated portion of the house!  Poor thing had to be shivering to its roots!  

  So I moved the cute little dish and its priceless occupant to the greenhouse.  At least there, the lighting was perfect!  The nighttime temperatures have been in the 60s so we are good there but.....but today while I was watering the plants, I noticed that the thermometer read 87 degrees!  Aaack!  What was I supposed to do now?

  I looked at my ward and asked if it was sweltering.  No answer.  I did, however, notice that it had bloomed!  Hey! Perhaps I am doing something right!  Perhaps the plant likes the greenhouse!  Or, perhaps, the plant is just giving its one last hurrah before its demise.....I hope not....I truly hope not.  Please little African Violet, try your best!