Every Room a Garden

I love my houseplants. In the dead of winter, they bring warmth and joy and life into my home. My little garden room which we call a “Florida room” is my refuge in the morning. After walking Shadow, I retreat there with a cup of coffee. Then it is time for religious devotions, prayer, spiritual reading and reflection. Sometimes I just sit and count my blessings. I thought you’d enjoy a peek into my garden room. Image a small room with four wide windows overlooking fields and woods. The walls are knotty pine paneling halfway up, and near the top are painted a rich woodland green that sparkles with crushed quartz stone that was mixed into the paint. There’s a rocker for you to sit and enjoy the sunrise, because the room faces east; or you can sit in my ratty second hand club chair, put your feet on the heart shaped braided rug, and sip your coffee gazing out towards my vegetable garden.

My pink geranium won’t give up and admit that it’s winter – it is still blooming. Its blossoms cheer me on a cold day.

I have about a dozen African violet plants. When I visited my sister in New York in 2007, she gave me cuttings from three of her African violets that I admired. One was a blue-purple, one was white with burgundy edged ruffled leaves, and one had gigantic pink ruffled flowers. Each cutting rooted. But now, all of the plants are producing the flowers, below! This is called a chimera, according to African violet breeders….apparently the cuttings did not have the same genetic material as the parent plant, so they reverted to whatever genetics the leaves carried. They are still wonderful. I love the shy bursts of purple peeking out from the windowsill garden.

And lo and behold – my discounted Christmas cactus from Lowe’s is not only living, it’s thriving! See it in the red pot, in the middle, below? It really revived. I hope it will bloom next year!