(from other thread since there is overlap)

Dear Barbara, thank you for stopping in with the hugs. i really can use those. I feel for you too with your struggles with your neighbors and inlaws, and i am wishing you well.

Dear BJ, I have been concerned about you since not seeing you post much recently. hope you are doing ok. Thank you for the lovely african violet photo. not sure on this one since there is a play of light involved, but this looks also to be the same kind of flower as my "magical" plant. Similar color anyway, and same shape of flower. Yes that hug from my mother was a real surprise. I nearly lost it (in a good way sort of, if you know what i mean).

Today the top part of the soil feels a little drier. and the "diaper" was dry - lol - the double paper tissue i put under the pot to suck out the water and change it whenever it gets wet... like a diaper. still not out of the woods though, the soil is still water-laden - the pot is heavy. but hopefully near the surface it is ok. some of the stems perked up. it absorbed some water. that is not a sign of rooting - only capillary action, btw. it also does not preclude rotting. only time will tell.

it takes about 4-6 six weeks for rooting according to my mother. 2 weeks have elapsed. we have to scrape by for another month. i apologized to the violet about the water and pleaded with it not to rot. i also apologized to the dead one and sat with it a while before it went to the compost. maybe i'm not bipolar - just crazy.

i am actually not that knowledgeable about plants. my mother is and i guess some sank in from her talking over the years. some i have to ask her or look up. however she has never been able to keep an african violets. in fact she says to bottom water. so i top water and sparingly. i figure if her system kills them, use a different system. she also has a vigorous tendency to boss her plants "either you thrive or i'll compost you!" that wigs me right out. i get upset when she talks about mine like oh well if it dies it dies, so what, compost it and get another one.

i was actually insulted when she bought the second violet to "replace" my not-dead-yet one which she had written off but did not in fact die. however she said she chose it for the blooms and indeed i really liked it. i am sorry that it died. i think i feel a bit guilty because of the way i felt as to its being a "replacement" plant. poor thing.

i feel like a very elderly lady that keeps cats or something. i would keep a cat if we had the space. but no can do. so i only keep plants. and only two now (the rooting violet and my zamioculcas). actually lately i have felt like a child, not so much elderly at all, not even adult. terribly impotent.

~ waves ~ will stop rambling on now