Quick Perk Up with Houseplants

Yesterday, I perked up the kitchen with a couple pots of African violets. Winter weather and gloomy, gray days have finally arrived and I began thinking how cheerful some violets would look on the windowsill.

Our kitchen has a huge picture window on the wall with the sink. It's kind of odd for a kitchen and it probably replaced 2 smaller windows that would originally been over the sink. Other houses in the neighborhood that were built about the same time as ours, 1929, typically have 2 small windows in the kitchen. This giant window, which looks out over the backyards of the neighborhood, was probably added sometime around the 1950's. I keep my small collection of McCoy pottery planters on the windowsill. As you can see, the windowsill sometimes collects odds and ends that I am too lazy to put away.

The 2 planters on the left were made specifically for African violets and I picked them up at yard sales for around ten to twenty five cents each. Before you get excited about my great bargains, I should let you know that they are both damaged. They're still great for violets though. The attached saucers have drainage holes that allow the violets to be watered from beneath, as recommended.

I have had varying degrees of luck growing violets, but at some point I usually have to throw away dead plants and start over. It's been a while since I have had violets and it wasn't as easy to find them as it used to be. Evidently I am not the only one who has not been buying little luxuries like house plants these days because the stores where I used to buy them don't seem to carry many small houseplants anymore. After checking 3 grocery stores, where there were only a few sad looking primroses and at Home Depot, where there were only a handful of orchids, I finally thought to check at a florist shop. They use them in planters and baskets were happy to sell me a couple.

I put away the junk that accumulated on the windowsill, washed the planters, cleaned the window, polished the marble sill, and added the violets. For now, I just set them down in the planters in their little plastic pots but I'll have to bring some potting soil in from the garage to warm up and then plant them properly. For $14, I added a touch of life and color to our winter kitchen. As a bonus, I was motivated to do a bit of cleaning.