Bloomin' laundry!

When my grandmother passed away this summer my mother foolishly, er... graciously left me in charge of my grandmother's African Violet plant that had been in her room. Now, I love plants and I do currently have a few indoor plants (I am a firm believer that I am not responsible for those outdoors, mother nature is) that are still alive. But I am not known for my horticulture skills. I sincerely apologize to that one plant I decided to water in the guest bath bathtub and didn't discover until much, much later. RIP my little philodendron. On the otherhand I have managed to keep a few plants green. I guess you could say I have more of a chartreuse thumb with intent to be green.

So back to the African Violet. This was a lot of pressure. My mom had been unsuccessful in getting me a starter off the original plant so after her last visit she just left it with me. I have to admit, I wasn't exactly ready for a new plant. So much responsibility. How could I take care of one more? Would I neglect my other plants? Would the other plants get jealous and turn brown? And this one, it's so delicate, so finicky, would I have the patience for it? Am I the right kind of person to take care of such a plant?

So there it sat, right next to my sink so that I perhaps may not forget to water it. Until one day I was cleaning up and temporarily moved it to the laundry room. Well numerous loads of laundry and several days later here is what I discovered:

Yep, you see correctly. That is a bloom! My very first violet. You thought I was going to show you a dried up sad looking plant, didn't you? Well you thought wrong. Apparently, this little guy loves the laundry room. Is it the fresh laundry scent? The swooshing of the washing machine? The brief moment of attention when I have to move it to clean out the lint screen? Who knows, but whatever it is, it's working! And lest my mother should think that I just snitched some random photo off the web, here is a full shot:

Bloom on, little buddy... bloom on.