African Violets have to eat too

I have these African Violets.

I love them, but plants and I have been a source of contention since birth.

You see I have the opposite of a green thumb - I kill plants.

Oh Unintentionally for sure.

So I have these violets and I have had them for about a year. They came in a lovely Chinese urn - Navy Blue clay with gold trim.

Wolfi broke that. He knocked the whole thing out of the window sill. Where he didn't belong.

And he knew it.

Came running into me to tell me what happened, and of course I wasn't surprised.

ORANGE CATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I go on ebay and find a pot that matches my china in that room and buy it. Once it gets here, I transplant the Violet with special soil provided by Mom into the new pot.

It has a matching stoneware drainage dish which is perfect.

So meanwhile, I learned from the last African Violet I got 2 years ago ( that died on the table) that one has to feed the plant, not just water it.

YOu can't water it too much - it doesn't really like that. It needs to eat but doesn't need that much.

Oh and Did you know that plant food is poisonous?

So, I should tell you that I know this because Wolfi ( again) decided that he was thirsty and hopped up there and took a couple of sips out of the drainage dish.

Thankfully I caught him before he had very much - maybe a sip tops. He may not have had any to be honest.

I flipped out. I called Animal Poison control - and they charge you for the call by the way. A lovely fee that they happily - and cheerfully, put on your MAstcard, Visa, American Expressor discover.

I paid THAT money for them to tell me to monitor him because though its poisonous, it was severly diluted in water, and had already passed through the plant. It was more likely that he was drinking dirty water with dirt than poisonous water.

So now I am on the watch. And of course tonight is the one night I am tired enough now to go to bed.

He's fine, I'm sure. My gutt says he's OK, and his behaviours say he's OK. He's eating, drinking, playing and he did try to hump his brother. All the normal things this cat does.

He had a treat, he cuddled while we watched TV and tried to steal my dinner. Truly nothing outlandish.

So in recounting this story to the neightbors, their answer was: Stop feeding the violets.

But they are blooming for the first time in months - African Violets have to eat too!

I just have to monitor the "children" better than that.