It's ALIVE!!!!!

It's ALIVE!!!!!  Not Frankenstein, although several movies that feature him are among my all time favorite movies ..... but my lovely little bonsai!!  When traveling with Barbara and Tom Westerfield, you can't help but notice the HUGE container in their rig full of green growey things.  Barbara says Tom has a black thumb and several of his plants have kicked the bucket, including a couple of bonsai and several cactus!!   I have the same black thumb.   The only thing living around my house is the lawn and a couple of shrubs.  With so much traveling, I don't keep ANY green growing plants in my house.  Every time I return home, they are all dead!!  Housekeepers don't seem to keep plants very well.

One day in Walmart, Tom found the perfect container for a mobile garden.  He filled it with soil and plants, making a gorgeous terrarium.  We even stopped at several nurseries looking for the perfect sized plant to grow in that perfect environment.  You don't have to water it ... you leave the top on and it waters itself!!  Turns out violets were a perfect fit for his terrarium and they bloomed like crazy.

All this plant talk made me want to try it again ... something small I could keep in the rig.  Bonsai seemed to fit the bill.  I found this one in Albuquerque.  Barbara's daughter runs the entire Fresno County Fair flower and plant exhibit ... helped by her mom and dad.  I grilled them for bonsai advice, to which they said ... just stick it out in the garden where it will get water from the sprinklers.  It will thrive.  Well that's good to know ... except I really wanted to keep it in the rig.

Since I found it outdoors in the first place ... and it was blooming tiny white flowers ... I kept it on the counter in the rig, right next to an open window.  Unfortunately, it got a little chilly at night for the puppies and me, with the window open.  At any rate, it made the trip home, no longer blooming.  I moved it to the coldest place in my house, next to a window with lots of light.  It didn't take long for it to show brown leaves.  OH NO ... it's DYING!!!  I decided to take Barbara's advice to heart and stick it in the garden.  To my surprise, little green leaves started to appear.  It sat basking in the fog, rain and cold for two months  and is happy as can be.

My problem here is that I wanted a traveling companion ... something that could survive the black thumb and puppy slobber of rig life.  Apparently, that's not going to happen with bonsai.  This little viburnum will live in the protected back garden while I'm on vacation in Arizona.  At least I can say (at this point) it's ALIVE!!!

Maybe I'll go find a container and try violets!!!