Green Thumb - NOT!

In plain ole every day terms, a person who is a skilled gardener has a “green thumb” .
The seedlings that they plant with loving care…grow! They don’t wilt down two days after being replanted, never to raise their heads again. Mr/Mrs.Green Thumb can buy (or be given) the worst looking plant in the nursery, the one that was on the dead plant pile, and nurse it back to life. There’s magic in them fingers!  

On the other hand, there are people who were born with a “brown thumb” and are not good at handling (or growing) plants. They try everything, follow all directions and feel in their hearts that "my plants will grow this year!"  This person should NEVER buy or be given any living greenery; flowers, trees, shrubs or ground cover. It won’t grow! It will wilt, turn brown, mold, and end up where no plant wants to be…in the garbage can with the dead grass, moldy flowers and a few scrubby dandelions.

Well, meet Mrs. Brown Thumb! I will sadly admit that when I bring a plant into my house, the first thing I do is make the “sign of the cross” over it and wish it good luck.

When I was first married, my dear, sweet mother-in-law would bring me tiny African violets, no bigger than my thumb, that she had raised from a seedling or however they multiply. I would cringe when I saw her coming, little decorated flower pot in hand, smiling like I was about to get the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. 
SHE had the magical green thumb….she raised African violets by the dozen…pink ones, blue ones, double ones, single ones and they were all beautiful and healthy. They were in her front window, in the kitchen window, the bathroom window and on the porch…all blooming like crazy. Oh yes, she also grew Christmas cactus that actually bloomed every year. Another one of my disappointments.

My failure with the African Violets, I was told, is that I watered them too much and got water on their leaves. Well, excuse me! If the forebearers of those African violets lived outdoors anytime in their history, they would have gotten water on their leaves. It rains almost everywhere at one time or another. Unless Africa was one big dry greenhouse.

But no matter how many I managed to overwater, underwater or allow to shrink away, she always tried again. As for the Christmas cactus, I followed the instructions that I was given…."keep them in a dark place for several weeks and they would start to put on blooms". 

Wrong again….I think I had the male variety because once it had bloomed, it decided that motherhood was not for it …"no more blooms for me honey....look for a lady cactus"