Spring Potting and Earth Day

Yesterday was Earth Day and today was Administrative Professionals Day. Two wonderful reasons to do some spring repotting and buy some new flowers and plants. I allowed myself to go to my biggest weakness (after Target of course): Agway. "But just for a minute." They have the most beautiful, healthy, and inspiring plants. I got a few special plants and a tiny clay pot and tray. And some sphagnum moss to repot my orchid which has been bursting at the seams for some time.

Since no one at work appreciated me on Admins' Day (losers), and in honor of how I appreciate the fact that I go to work and bring home a paycheck every two weeks, and to celebrate Earth Day (spring, new life, birth, rebirth, growth), I did some potting. For those of you who don't know me well, I do NOT have what you'd call a "green thumb." I can kill with the best of 'em. But in the last few years, I have made great strides in my goal to someday be the gardening type. I have three plants that are still alive and everything! Plus two at work that couldn't be happier! (Miraculous, all of it.)

While accessing my deep roots from a gardening and earth tilling family, I found that one of my greatest joys is repotting. And the fact that you can't just do it anytime you feel like it. You have to wait. A while. And then, when the time is right, do it just so; there's a lot of prayer and grace involved - mercy, if you will - and miracles, like when they survive the process and grow into their new pots. It's deeply satisfying, and quite easy overall, if you pay attention.

So here are the little darlings. I love them so. Please forgive the fuzzy shots - it was getting dark already, so the exposures were too long.

This one: what a darling, the Ultima Morpho Pansy. I bought a six-pack and split four for me to take to work (shown here) and two for a tiny pot for Scott's work desk, to remind him of happiness. They smell so sweetly too.

This picture is rather pathetic, but in person, wow: a Moses in the Cradle with green on top of the leaves and purple underneath (delicate, beautiful, at once relaxed and stunning), and two newly implanted bits of Christmas cactus. Which I rooted in water, from a cutting. (!!!! You may remember pot after pot of dead sticks which I would not let go of b/c I could see just the tiniest hint of green on one edge.)

And this is my favorite: the Jacob's Ladder (all very Biblical today, hmmm). It grows in shade! Our house gets hardly any sun, so the fact that a strikingly beautiful plant wants shade is marvelous. I'm so excited! Supposedly it gets white flowers, but who cares! It's perfect already. It's by the front door.

This precious little one holds the two pansies for Scott. I hope they bloom a lot for him.

And there's my newly transplanted and hopefully not traumatized orchid - the Dendrobium. Robin says it won't flower again, but I love the plant itself and there are two new babies in the sphagnum moss undergrowth. Keep your fingers crossed it survives - I have never done so much research on repotting a plant. They are so reputably fragile and persnickety. But I have a good feeling she will take it like a pro.

Well, I can't for the life of me [read: too tired] figure out how to get the text to go under the picture instead of beside it - annoying. Other things I did to celebrate Earth Day: at the grocery store, bought organic a few times where I normally would've gotten the cheaper version; bought and tried the new Clorox Green Works cleaning solution, which seems to work fine; got my oatmeal in bulk (which was way cheaper); recycled stuff; saved a plastic strawberry carton and used it to hold odds and ends in the junk drawer; took some pics of Spring in NH; used the windows instead of the car's A/C; unplugged the appliances that would be least annoying if found unplugged; read some vegetarian recipes and got excited about veggies; contemplated making my own granola; decided to recycle an old campy shirt into a summery pillow slipcover; went barefoot. Did you do anything to celebrate?

(BTW, my Agway purchases were so cheap all totaled up! I love Agway. Just today I read a novel by a woman who said finding a great bargain is one of the best feelings in the world and makes life worth living. I thought, "Well, that's a tad dramatic." Until walking out of Agway! And then I knew just what she meant!) :)

Scott joked today about happiness, "It's overrated." And I, cynical I, replied, "No really, it IS all it's cracked up to be!" I feel happy today and I'm loving it.

Thanks for reading!
~Ally