Planting Twenty Wishes

So I need help.  Every year, I buy several flowering plants to put in the planters on my porch.  Every year I water them and feed them.  Every year they die within a few weeks.  WHAT AM I DOING WRONG???  So frustrating!  I so want to have pretty little blooms on my porch! Any suggestions would be welcome!

So I've been reading this book and it has me thinking about my own twenty wishes. Twenty things I want to do before I die.  I don't have all or even a fourth of them figured out yet, but I've decided that as I think of them, I can post them here and then check them off if or when they happen.

Here's what I've come up with thus far:

1. To become a halfway decent horseback rider.

2. To vacation some place warm and tropical where you can see through the ocean water to the bottom.

3. To see Killer whales in the wild.

Unfortunately "warm and tropical" and "killer whales" don't go together at all or I could accomplish two things at once.

What about you?  What are the secret desires of your heart?