Green Thumb Challenged

The Ragtag Daily Prompt is challenge. There are tons of challenges and struggles in life. I don’t feel like doing a dark, sad post about the horrors of cancer or the loss of a dog. Been there, don’t need to visit.

Instead I think I’ll cover the challenge of plant care. That is a major challenge for me. I will say will complete confidence that a green thumb is not- I repeat NOT- hereditary. My mom had a garden that was a couple of acres, a vineyard and an orchard of both fruit and nut trees. I still don’t know how she did it. You wouldn’t believe how thrilled I am that my cactus is still alive.

I do have optimism though. Or is it just blind hope or idiocy that I buy plants every spring? They’re so pretty and I think, “Oh! Those would look so nice on the porch. I’d love to see those every day.”  There should be a sign at those places that says “Plants grown by professionals. Do not try this at home.”

I guess they wouldn’t sell much, but they sure would save a lot of plants’ lives. Plants come to my house to die. It’s not that I don’t take care of them. Maybe I take care of them too much. If I knew which it was, I’d change it. But when you look online to find out why your plant is dying and it says it may be too much water or it may be not enough water, that doesn’t help. The summers here in Oklahoma are brutal and I’m not exaggerating. Plants will burn up from the sun no matter how much water you give them. So I put them in pots so I can move them to the shade when it’s really hot. Or if a bad storm is coming and the wind is going to be insane. See? I care about them!

My geranium doesn’t look anything like the ones in the photo above.

Neither do my petunias.

This one was really pretty when I bought it. Now it reminds me of that octopus guy in the Spiderman movie.

So, I don’t know if I’ll buy any plants next year. I also don’t know if I’ll try to keep some of them alive past this fall by bringing them in to the house. I’m coming to the realization that it’s more work than it’s worth. I’m spending more time trying to keep them alive than I am enjoying their beauty. Plus I really feel bad when they die before their time.

The Lantana seems to be doing ok. It’s an annual here though, so short life span. Those little purple flowers are hanging on.

I just have to resist the urge to start all over in the spring.