Probably doesn't look like much, but this is a special plant. I found it the morning that hurricane Ike had blown through. It was still raining and the wind was pretty strong yet, but I was driving around and saw this lone plant, laying on it's side in the middle of a parking lot, completely ripped from the dirt. It looked scared and lonely. Oddly, there were not other plants like it anywhere to be seen. What can I say? I'm clearly a giant sap, and felt compelled to scoop it up to take it home. I am also a total black thumb, but even my hideous skills were a better bet than lying with naked roots, waiting to get run over.
It had no flowers at the time, and since I left it in my car accidentally overnight, it was fairly withered when I realized what I'd done and ran to retrieve it (it was a very disorienting time. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it). However late, I potted and watered it, talking lovingly to it as I patted the fresh, nutrient rich soil around it as if I were tucking a child into it's crib. I tell you it perked up within hours, and the next morning there were signs of sprouting tiny new buds-to-be. Oh joy.
Four days of scorching heat later I realized I hadn't watered it since and ran out to find those same hopeful leaves brown and the buds tragically shrunken in the dawn of life. Aghast at my own ADD, I cursed and bemoaned my horrible mothering, as my dear husband reassured me it would come to life again if I just watered it a lot. Which HE did over the next few days, as he likes to save things too (and in this case he was saving the plant I saved from me). A few days ago I put it in the sun, and pinched off all it's dead leaves. Two days later, voila! It is bursting with tiny fucsia blossoms and fresh green leaves. Double click the pic
If you don't think there's a power greater than yourself, I submit this as exhibit A!
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