Gardening 101

In light of some new developments, I’ve decided to go public with my gardening story. It turns out that my thumb might not be the complete opposite of green, but the universe was working against me in my first attempt at some pretty potted plants.


William and I took a Sunday about a month ago and bought out the Lowe’s garden section to spruce up our front yard. We planted some wild grass, flowers, and bushes in our front bed and they looked great. Then, William gave me the task of planting a few pots for the front porch. While browsing Lowe’s garden area, I came across some white and purple Calla Lillie's. I was immediately drawn to them for a couple of reasons.
1. Calla Lillies are one of my favorite flowers.
2. The purple and white Calla’s were one of the primary flowers used in our wedding.


How perfect to select these beautiful flowers to adorn our front porch as well. So I bought 2 of each color (each w/ multiple blooms) and also a deep purple plant to surround the flowers and add some depth. I spent a good hour potting and arranging everything just right and it looked amazing when I was done…but as the days went by, my pots started looking worse and worse. After trying countless ways to perk my plants back up (including moving them off the porch into the sun, watering them with rain water, adding fertilizers and more potting soil), I finally looked up online remedies for calla lily care. I discovered that they are particularly high maintenance plant and will only bloom if the conditions are perfect. If it’s too hot or they get too much sun, they burn up. If they don’t get enough sun, the wilt. If they don’t get enough water, they die. If they get too much water, they rot.


When I checked the soil, it felt pretty saturated which led us to believe that they had been over watered. One of the things it said online was to make sure your pots allow adequate drainage at the bottom and upon inspection, we found our pot had one center hole and that’s it. So last night, William decided to drill a few extra drain holes in the pots. It took only one hole to discover what the problem was with my lilies. An impressive amount of brown water started running out of the new drain immediately and a smell that resembled rotten eggs solidified that indeed the pot had held in too much water and it had rotted at the bottom.


Above are pictures of my pots in their current state…next time, I’m planting something more durable and little less high maintenance, so I guess I’m looking for a plant that’s a little more like me.