Green or Black Thumb? Time Will Tell.

   I decided recently that it was about time I got over my phobia of killing green things and get a few plants to have at home.  I have a bit of a bad history with being able to keep plants alive... I distinctly remember moving into my first apartment on my own with about 5 houseplants.  Within 6 months I had no houseplants.  That clearly makes me a serial plant killer.  But I am hoping that my days of unrelenting violence toward foliage have come to an end. 
 
    I bought three living things yesterday to bring home, enjoy, and (hopefully) keep alive.  I immediately named them all as well.  I am a strong believer that houseplants require names.  It makes them feel included.  In college, my roommates and I had several plants around with lovely names.  We had a spider-plant named Spike (Spike subsequently had babies that I believe may still be living to this day); and we had an ivy plant called Medusa (and when Medusa died at my hand, we got another one named Medusa Dos).  So now to join that illustrious group are my three new babies:

Viola (my new African Violet):

Tom (my cherry tomato plant):

And Petunia (my Petunias - clever, I know...):

   I think of the three, Petunia has the best chance at survival.  However, according to my aunt, African Violets are difficult to kill (she has several that have survived for years), so I am going to hope she's right and my bad history with plants ends today.  Maybe Viola stands a fighting chance...  Tom, I just don't have any idea about.  I'm going to have to Google "how not to kill your tomato plants" today to make sure I'm doing everything right.

   So here begins my new botanical adventure.  All three specimens survived their first night in my care.  Here's hoping for night 2.