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Today I bought four miniature pots of Johnny Jump-ups, my favorite flower to attempt to grow.

In general, I am not so good with plants. I like them and have tried to grow everything from houseplants to outdoor flowers in window boxes. Sometimes I'm successful, more often I'm not.

Before moving to Germany, I had a beautiful philodendron that I had had for 6 years. It had gotten huge and was a beautiful plant, even though the cats tried to chew on it now and then. I gave it to my mom before coming here, and she says it still looks good.

I have tried jade plants too. As a matter of fact, I have managed to kill at least four! The first one got root rot (over watered), the second, I left in the back window of my car on a very warm June day and it got sunburned... it never recovered and finally died, the third also got root rot (once again, over watered), and the fourth first got sunburned... when it was finally coming out of that, I forgot to bring it inside on a cold night and it froze. Oops!

I have had fairly good luck with ferns. However, my latest fern suffered the same fate as the jade plant. I left it out on the balcony on too many cold nights and it froze too.

Currently, I am having very good luck with this alien plant. I am not really sure what it is. I bought it shortly after coming to Germany and at the flower shop the lady told me what it was, but at that time I didn't speak enough German to know what she called it. However, it is more like a tree. Currently, it is about two feet tall (it was only about 8-10" when I got it) and has green leaves that alternate and these red fuzzy fronds. It is really neat, but A. says it looks like it belongs on another world.

This brings me to my Johnny Jump-Ups (or Violas). I love violas and pansies, and in the past I have had pretty good luck with them... except for last year. Late last spring I bought a window box for my balcony and planted some violas... it was late in the season and I don't think I got the best of the crop. I bought four mini-pots and planted them in my window box and they looked good until one of them got aphids. I was able to get the aphids under control, but then the weather turned super hot and did them in.

I just hope I have better luck this year...