My Ebenezer

 I'm pretty sure I have  made it abundantly clear  that live plants and I do not get on together. Historically it has not mattered how much effort I put into caring for plants, their outcome is the same: demise. That said, I nonetheless was inspired to purchase some houseplants last summer, and an orchid was among them. I must have been feeling uncharacteristically brave that day. We brought it home laden down with 7 blooms just simply unapologetic in their beauty. It was almost indecent. And within a week of being on my kitchen windowsill, all 7 blooms had gone to their shrivelly graves. The orchid turned gangly and Josh thought about trimming it way back. I thought about tossing it in the trash; after all, this was further evidence of my deplorable lack of gardening skills. Yet for some reason, I kept the orchid. I'd dust the leaves off every so often and place it insistently in the window, turning its good side toward the sun. I watered it doubtfully every so often. On...

1.  Receive the World's Most Beautiful Poinsettia from your neighbors at Christmastime. 2.  Place it outside on the front porch to bring a little cheer to your entryway.  3.  Water and admire it. 4.  Forget about it during a deep-freeze of 24 degrees overnight. 5.  Voila! Poinsettia should be sufficiently dead with no hope of revival.  The moral of this sad-but-true story is:  Never Give Live Plants To Me.  They Just Won't Make It.   Fresh-cut roses, however, I will take since I can't damage those. :)

This week went better than I had anticipated photo-wise!  I had my doubts as to whether I'd remember to take photos every single day, but I did!  The only 2 days I missed were days that my dear husband took my camera to work with him to take videos of a house he had just completed.  Maybe he needs a camera for his birthday... Here is week 3 in photos: At the beginning of the month, we tore out the mega-bush that had flanked the whole front of our house for the last 40 years, and put in some things we liked better.  Since the weather had been so beautiful lately, I sent Noah out to water the plants.  In shorts and a t-shirt!  Brothers making each other smile.  LOVE THIS! If the weather is nice, I usually take Seth for a walk at some point during the day.  His eyes are closed because the sun was bright, not because he was asleep. I view this as God's early Valentine's gift to me each year.  This tree in front of our hous...

There. I came up with a title. I dislike coming up with titles, by the way. I can sit there for 10 or 15 minutes, drumming up a title and then never get to post what I want. Not today! (I find it especially hard when I'm going to be posting about random things in the same post. What do you call a post that's not really about anything?) This has been the most beautiful Spring season since we've been in Florida. The days just can't get any more gorgeous, and I'm so thankful to God! I go outside and smell the air to get a whiff of my wisteria that are blooming. The dogwood trees are especially beautiful, and so are all the other flowers that I know not the names of. :) I appreciate them, even if I don't know what they're called. I've decided against a vegetable garden again this year. Call me lazy, or just plain busy, but I can't seem to fit that in just yet. That, and I'm hard-pressed to find a spot in our yard that receives at least 6 ...

I needed to take a moment to express my strong affection for The Geranium. Not only are they really pretty, but it turns out they are very hardy and almost impossible to kill! And for me to say that is pretty amazing. I have unintentionally killed so many plants in my lifetime, that for one to live under my care is noteworthy. :) I bought a geranium last June and put it out on our front porch to bring a little summer cheer to our front door. I thought I'd be replacing it in the Fall with a nice purple mum. This geranium lived through the Fall months though, and I didn't have the heart to uproot it to make room for something else. It bloomed until December, when the weather turned cold and it gave up making flowers. I was just biding my time until spring, when I would uproot it and plant something else. I even forgot to water it. For months . Then, the other day, some red caught my eye by our front door. My geranium is blooming! How it survived twenty-degree nights and no water ...

Thought you'd like to see our amaryllis that has been blooming now for a couple of weeks. It is one of the only plants that has survived my black thumb. :)

Really it just illustrates my point; that I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to identifying plants! My mother-in-law Mom Rowley, left the following comment on my blog last night: Joanna: I think your "lilacs" are actually wisteria! From looking at the height, size of flowers, and they taper down and not up I think you have a loveley wisteria vine...." After googling "lilac" and then "wisteria", I totally stand corrected! She's right! Actually, the fact that I have wisteria makes more sense, because last night we found the source of my "lilacs" was a vine coming up through the fence. I had thought it was a lilac tree, but in reality it's a wisteria vine using a plain old tree for a trellis. So. I have a little work to do! Wouldn't it be so romantic to put up a trellis (which Mom suggested) and have beautiful wisteria growing over it? I'd feel all Anne of Green Gables or something. :) I might even...

Earlier in the week I found azaleas in our back yard at Cellar, and yesterday; lilacs! They smelled so fragrant I wished I could put my nose right in them and just breathe it right in. I was a little jealous of the fat bumblebee who appeared to be doing just that, and had to be satisfied instead with the photos I took. A lady from church gave me two strawberry plants (clearly she has not heard of my inadvertent Plant Killings , or she may have just bought me some strawberries instead!) and I planted them over at Cellar last night. I went to check on them this morning, and they looked fine! I hope I can overcome my past and go on to be an expert gardener. Right. Or maybe I'll just settle for being Someone Who Doesn't Kill Plants. One can always hope!

I'm a flower's worst nightmare. Regretfully, I think I have successfully killed every poor plant that has crossed my doorstep! Try as I might, I just cannot manage to water them properly or remember to care for them the way they need. Do they need sun? Shade? Water? But not too much? I think this is one underlying reason that I forewent (forgoed?) having a garden this year--I'm not quite ready to commit to the time and research it would take to avoid killing everything I planted. Take the above Marigold for example. Right on the pot it says Sun. Sol. I took that to mean it needs to be in a sunny spot, and I obliged. Still, after a week it's looking less-than-impressed with me. (and yes, I watered it!) It must have heard about my Lack Of Gardening Skills and given up. You see, my track record just isn't that good.