Mums

I was freaking out about my mums the past few days.  This was the first year I actually bought mums which is really ridiculous since they are "the flower" of fall and I love mums and fall.

Well, maybe its not that ridiculous since I hate plants.  I have had a few in my life so I think I am a fair judge of them and just how demanding they can be.  Needing sunlight, but not too much.  Needing water, but not too much.

The watering was always my downfall.  I tend to overdo things to a fault, so if some water is good, isn't more water better?  I think every single plant I have ever owned was fatally over watered at some point.

So this time, I was determined to get it right.  I bought this beautiful yellow potted mum from Home Depot on 8/31/12 or 9/1/12.

I took this picture about 9/21/12.  Looking pretty darn good for me owning it for 3 weeks, right?

Well about a week ago, I started noticing some wilting and browning.  No way was I going to let this plant die.  I set it outside in the sun because I thought maybe it wasn't getting enough sun.  Nope, it looked even worse after 3 hours outside.  I thought maybe it needed sun but it was too cold outside.  So I set it in a windowsill.  Nope, still looks terrible.  I paid extra close attention to how damp the soil was and was very careful not to over water it.  I even read the little card it came with to ensure I was caring for it properly.

This is far more than I have ever done for any other plant in my life...and it still looks like this.

Clearly, it is dying.  So I did some Google research and found out that this is pretty normal for this particular store-bought mum.  Apparently there is a certain life cycle and it is near over.

I gave up tonight and moved it into the garage.  I just can't stomach looking at it anymore, it is too depressing.  I just keep thinking I did something terribly wrong to this plant.  I think I am done with plants for life.