To tell the truth, I didn't rush out the door or even start getting ready to go on such a cold Saturday morning without some hesitation. I could easily have stayed home with the hubs, and having to dig the car out after yet another snow storm did not help my reticence.
Since I'm starting to think about what I want to tackle in the front yard (*see below*) IF and when this winter decides to give it up (hard to imagine on one of the top 20 coldest days in Chicago's history), I thought the plant talk would help get my mind *in the game*, er, garden. And being in a warm greenhouse for a few hours would be nice, too.
* I'll be ready to jump in this spring with the help of a landscape design class I'm taking next week at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I'd like to have a plan in place for adding some foundation plants including some evergreens to the front yard and to figure out how to take the garden to the next level.
As a gardener, most of my green thumb and thinking is focused OUTSIDE, even though I bring some plants inside each winter to see how long they'll survive. Over the years, I've brought in herbs, geraniums, elephant ears (caladium), decorative or thai peppers and, this year, begonias. Most of them did not make it past January so my expectations are set fairly low, and I don't think about house plants when I am 'gardening.'
So I joined the household plant lecture with a few questions in mind. One of my plants had an ongoing bug problem, the begonias had a powdery mold or mildew on the leaves and a few other plants had not made the move from our very sunny condo to our fairly shady house very well.
For some reason, it had not occurred to me that INDOOR plants were as complicated, varied and in need of attention as much as my OUTDOOR plants.
As the discussion continued, I realized I had been outright negligent of my indoor plants. Some died as a result, including the pretty pink-tinged long-leafed one that froze out on the sun porch one unexpectedly cold night last November. Some had come and gone fairly quickly, others had surely suffered for years but still managed to hang in there.
Is there a group of People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants as there is for animals? Would I be in trouble with them if such a group did exist? Possibly so.
I have taken my indoor plants, with whom I literally share space and air each day, for granted, as if they were stepchildren to my outdoor plants (although descriptive, as a stepparent, I dislike that phrase).
The truth is, I have been negligent. I've excitedly brought a new plant home here and there and done my best to find its perfect spot - with the right amount of sunlight or shade. I've tried to introduce the newbies to the existing crew, which had grown to over 25 plants we discovered when we moved into our house last year.
But apart from my weekly watering and occasional cleanup of dead leaves, the indoor plants were more or less ignored unless I saw something shocking, like serious spider webs or lots of dropped leaves. (Gasp!)
One plant has been with me for 25 years and with my family for at least 40 years. For his years of 'service' and ability to defy death multiple times, he earned a name. He's a simple spider plant, he makes lots of babies each year that tease my cats, and even my mother knows this plant by name, Harry.
But Harry's indoor comrades have been less fortunate with my affections and attention. Only one other plant has a name in my house; it's a jade plant I got from a former neighbor named Jay, so Jayde came easily. No other plants have nicknames, and I don't even know many of their proper names!
For someone who spends so much time in her garden, this realization was shocking. So I have made it my mission to get acquainted with my houseplants, and make things right for them. And I will do it. Starting now...
No comments:
Post a Comment