One down, two to go.

Well, I did it. I've already managed to kill one of the house plants I bought earlier this spring. I'd never really had a real house plant before, so I thought I'd "branch out" (ha) and give it a try. I bought three on a whim when they were on sale at Lowe's.

I watered them enough to keep the soil damp, but tried to avoid over-watering them. I even found some pretty pots for them at Tuesday Morning (only $10 each!). I thought, surely I can manage to keep them alive. How hard can it be?

Apparently, pretty hard.

Here's what this Cordyline plant looked like in its glory days. As you can see, it boasted lush, glossy, green foliage with tinges of reddish-purple. This one was Luke's favorite.

The little tag on it said it needed "high light" and to be fertilized every other month. I set it in our dining room, which I thought had enough light when our patio blinds were open. I also recently bought some fertilizer from the garden center to be mixed in with its water, but that was probably too little too late. By then, the damage had already been done.

Over the past couple of weeks, Cordyline seemed to be losing more and more color, and some of its leaves would fall off at the slightest touch. Earlier this week, I thought foolishly that maybe if I set it out in the sunlight for a few hours, it would magically be revived. Well, a stiff breeze blew off half of its brittle leaves, leaving behind this sad sight:

R.I.P. Cordyline (Sorry, Luke.)

However, after further inspection of the original plastic pot, I saw some gross little wormy insects coming out of the holes in the bottom. Not the earthworm variety. The creepy-crawly kind with legs. Disgusting. I don't know if this is normal or not, but I do know that I don't want this in my house anymore.

As for the other two survivors, a Mass Cane and an Anita, they may meet their fate under my watch soon, too. Mass Cane is also started to look a little wilted and it's getting a couple brown leaves. Only Anita, which says "high light or low light," seems to be faring okay...so far.

I'm not sure exactly where I went wrong, or if it was a combination of factors that contributed to Cordyline's untimely death. Maybe I'm just not cut out for house plants, and I can accept that.

Honestly, after seeing those worms, I'm not sure that I care if the other two plants live much longer or not. I also think that the plants have been the source of some annoying fruit fly-like insects that started appearing around the time we brought them home. Coincidence?  I think not.

See? This is why I stick to the fake stuff.

Signs of Life

This past week has been especially draining at work (hence my absence from blogging), so I was extra glad when the sun came out on Friday and the temperature skyrocketed into the 50s this weekend... maybe even 60. Balmy! It's amazing how the weather can lift your spirits. I've definitely got me a case of spring fever. 

We worked out in our lawn a bit this weekend, moving some limestone rocks around for our landscaping (more on that some other time). I also watered all the bushes and shrubs we planted last fall, and imagine my excitement when I saw this: 

I have no green thumb by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm pretty sure these are little buds on our burning bush?! After several months of paranoia that none of our plants would come back in the spring, this was a big relief.

Then, I was even more thrilled when I saw these:

Last Easter, my mom gave me a pot of tulips and a few months later I planted the bulbs next to the sidewalk in front of our house. I had read that potted tulips don't always grow once they're transplanted outside, but I figured I'd give it a shot since I didn't have much to lose. I had almost forgotten about them, but now we have ten little tulip plants that have started to sprout! They're only about an inch tall right now, but I haven't ever really grown anything from a bulb before, so I'm pretty proud.  :) Any tips for growing tulips, or are they pretty low-maintenance? I'm thinking I may have to transplant them somewhere else because their current location gets a lot of shade.

I have a few more projects in the works that I hope to post about soon, if I can ever get motivated when I get home from work! Maybe now that winter finally appears to be on its way out, I'll be a little more productive!