Flowers by Mail

Dear Mom,

What a nice surprise! The 10 African Violets arrived today and I'm more than pleased. Each little plant so perfectly wrapped for shipment that they were clean and fresh-looking right out of the box. The company that sent them, The Violet Barn packs them in fiberglass insulation so they're guaranteed even for winter shipping. Here they are just 4 hours after unwrapping from their little newspaper sleeves after they'd been watered and had some fresh air. Today the buds that were already on them are starting to open. Perfect for a flower nut with serious Spring Fever.

I found out our Postal Carrier is an African Violet aficionado, so that opens up an opportunity for a new gardening buddy! How's that for an extra bonus? Through a series of 'life issues', she lost most of her plants. The same thing happened to me so I can relate.

Here are the babies in all their petite glory. That's like saying, "What a cute little kitten, I'll just take him home, he won't eat much..." Right. They'll each get to be 10-12" inches wide. Twelve (I have 2) African Violets can take up a lot of space-I used to have about 30. First you have to get all the colors, then the fancies, then the minis, then the trailers. And *then* there are those beautiful variegated...*sigh* It's a sickness.

One for which I hope there's no cure.

I love you,

Lisa

Shopping!

Dear Mom,

OK, sometimes I love to shop, but only for things I really want and I shop my
way, which means online.

Don and I have been enjoying the plants I brought in from outside. I didn't
want to bother with a greenhouse, but I wanted to save some of my plants.
Then we got a couple of half-dead African Violets from Wal-Mart. Now for a
back-story. Don loves plants, but denies any involvement when it comes to
caring for them. He's been after me to get some houseplants, but I resisted
so far. Years ago in Florida I had about 30 African Violets, they're very
addictive. As soon as you have every color you can imagine, then there are
the Miniatures, and the Trailers, and the Chimeras, and the Variegated....



These two plants have done so well I went to this website, "The Violet Barn",
and ordered the "Seller's Choice" collection of ten different standard-size
African Violets. The total was $67.00, shipped, and in winter! Not bad.
http://www.robsviolet.com/
Take some time to go through the site, it's big and deep, and contains a lot
of their lives, there's even a love story.
http://www.robsviolet.com/about_us.htm
http://www.robsviolet.com/a_fairy_tale.htm
When grown right, these babies can be big-up to a foot wide. They're shipped
kind of small, though, as they're very brittle and prone to breakage. Oh,
no! A broken leaf? Uh, won't that make lots of new plants? *grin*

Never mind, they'll soon be bigger than I want them to be. Don's promised to
hang some grow-lights for me when the sun doesn't come in the south-facing
window later in the year. That's why they've been so pretty, they really
need a little sunlight or grow-lights to bloom like this. The blooms are as
nice as I've seen on show plants. Unfortunately, once or twice this winter,
I let them get dry and they were a little too close to the window and got
cold, resulting in some leaf damage.

Just got a confirmation on my order and they'll be delivered next week. Can't
wait. I have plant fever really badly and spent part of the day grooming my
plants.

I love you,

Lisa