Last year I wanted to have a fire escape garden. On our way back to my place, I saw a garden store.
"I need soil!" I said to Chris. We entered the store to find that the ONLY bag of soil they had weighed 40 pounds.
"I'll carry it!" Chris said. (A KEEPER, LADIES!)
Per usual, I did not have cash on me. To use a card, I had to spend at least $15. I considered my plant options and a stunning (I mean, STUNNING!) little plant called out.
"What's a Gloxinia?" I asked the lady. She told me that it was similar to an African violet and that you care for them much in the same way. I didn't listen to the rest because I too distracted by how amazing it looked in bloom. I purchased both soil and plant and my dashing boyfriend carried the 40 pounds of soil all the way home, where I replenished him with lots of Gatorade since he was looking wilted.
The Gloxinia bloomed for a month, maybe. Then it dropped its flowers and I was unclear what to do next. I had not yet had the awesome blooming African violet experience under my belt, so I was pretty skeptical about it blooming again. I read a blog that told me to cut all the leaves away and put the pot of soil (with bulb) in a dark closet for a few months.
I did that.
Then I brought it out again and started watering. A little leaf grew. Then another one. It was like magic! Then we moved to our current greenhouse apartment.
And THIS, ladies and gentlemen is what we're looking at now!
This plant is about to launch itself into being a full-time bouquet! And I could not be more pumped.
Side note: you may notice a coin sticking out of the soil in one of the photos above. This is a little quirky thing about my planting. There's no rhyme or reason to when this happens, but I like to stick foreign coins in particularly beloved plants. The Gloxinia has a Colombian coin, my cactus has one from India. I think I stuck a Euro in one of the violets. Kind of a fun tradition.
No comments:
Post a Comment