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I wish you could smell the rice paper bush. It’s lovely. Sweet, not very strong, lacking the citrus notes of gardenias and jasmine.


If any camellia has a scent, I have never encountered it.
That waxed amaryllis that started a bud after I peeled and potted it? The bud shriveled up and disappeared. But the leaves are HUGE.


It’s that time!!
When I bought this house, I got a mixed bag of daffodil bulbs. I wanted multiple clumps of single varieties. So, I put one of each in various places under the trees in the far back of our yard. Daffodils don’t spread as quickly as I thought they would. Also, there were fewer varieties in the bag than were on the label. But, they are still sunny yellow as Spring starts inching in.
I have an African violet and you are going to get a long story.
The first time I tried to grow them, a friend (who had 50 growing in her front windows) gave me leaves to root. They started, but didn’t ever get healthy and died before they bloomed. So, I thought they were difficult and gave up on them.
Maaaaaaaaany years later, I was having some health issues and my cousin sent me a plant basket which included an African violet. It lasted long enough for me to get a pot for it.
AV pots are pretty neat. They have a terra cotta insert that hold the plant and a decorative outer pot that holds water allowing the soil to stay always a little moist.
When that plant eventually died, I replaced it with this one that I found when I was out and about with my mother.

It stayed healthy and blooming for years. But, eventually got a gooseneck as it continued to grow and the leaves died at the bottom. I read that you can just cut that and stick the stem back in the soil and it will make roots from where the leaves had been. It lasted a long time after I did that.
It quit blooming last year and the leaves aren’t looking healthy. I’ll wait until it is completely dead before I replace it though. I really like this one and while there’s life there’s hope.
