Violets

GG was known for having a green thumb. As a kid,I can remember wondering why a thumb would be green if you were good with plants. Shouldn't it be brown with dirt? GG was never afraid to get dirty and her plants were always green, and lush, especially the violets.

When I moved out and got my own apartment, GG started giving me plants. At first it started with potted plants. Then when she would visit me, she brought "starts" from her plants and we would get pots, and soil and she would teach me how to plant my own. In the beginning I was timid and lightly tapped the pots acting like the plants were so fragile and I was some kind of debutante that couldn't get my hands dirty. GG would have none of that, get in there and get your hands dirty.

--I now know the pleasure and therapeutic value of digging in the dirt. It connects us to the earth, reminds us that we are caretakers. For a woman, planting feels like we are helping to create life. I wonder if that's why GG had so many plants. Her yard was filled with dozens of different plant life.When I would visit we would always have to "tour the yard".

But this is about the indoor plants, the violets. From the first apartment I had, and dozens of times after that, GG gave me violets, and violet starts. And every time I killed them. They didn't just get brown, or slowly stop flowering, or even just give up and wilt. No, I was a violet murderer. If it was a start, the stem would get mushy and moldy. If it was a plant, the leaves fell off, still green. I loved them to death is what I thought. I tried ignoring them instead. Too much I guessed and they shriveled up and died. I became a violet, serial killer.

I could keep everything else alive and it would thrive. I bragged about how I had her green thumb. I kept the violet murders a secret, but she knew. she would replace each one and give me tips. "Keep it in filtered light." "They don't like to go to bed with their feet wet". "If a leaf breaks off, put it in water right away and it will take root". I did all of this, and violets died anyway. The leaves I put in water just rotted away...unable to face the death that they knew was coming if I planted them.

After GG died, the biggest violet from her house went to the Kroc Center. It is two separate plants in one pot with two different kinds of violets both purple. A year later it was given to me as I moved out of town. Oh the anxiety. I was so nervous. I kept it in my car for the trip across several states to my new home. It had to have a place with filtered light...in front of the patio door so that the light is filtered from the balcony. Have to water it once a week. Put it in the sink and "give it a good soak" every now and then...I thought back at all of the things GG told me. It's another reminder of her.

It's alive and very well.  I did it! I am doing it. Leaves have broken off and I have two new plants potted from them. They now have new tiny leaves coming up from the soil.

I give it a "good soak" every other week. Wonderboy talks to it. We call it GG. I'm doing it...violets are growing in my apartment. I am rehabilitated.