Petrification

I am not a lover of plants…in my house.   I think plants are simply fantastic…outside, where nature or other people are taking care of them.   I think it’s mostly because I have fear of killing them, or just being a bad plant parent.   What if I give it too much water? (Done it.)   What if I give it too little sunlight?  (Done it.)   What if I give it too much sunlight?  (Definitely done it.)   I don’t like to hurt or kill things and since a plant doesn’t talk to me in ways I understand, I try to avoid them being under my personal care.

And yet I have plants in my house I was given by other people.   There was the terrarium-type-thing given to me for being a room parent one year.   It’s this little pitiful strand of something that seems to barely hang on.   I water it, I’ve given it more soil and I’ve tried various sun situations but it seems to hardly be making it.     There is also the stick I was given by my friend for taking her to her colonoscopy.   It was an orchid plant for a few months but then it turned into a stick.   It eventually produced more flowers but now I’m back to taking care of a stick for an unknown number of months.

I’ve been told, “just throw them out” but I can’t seem to be able to commit planticide so I just worry along and hope plants don’t understand negligence through lack of knowledge.  

There is one other plant I own though that was of my choosing.   I decided to adopt it and I’ve been dutifully watering it every day since sometime in the summer.   It has been doing well, seeming to be fine with the amount of water and sunlight I’ve been giving it.   I’ve been rather proud of myself until the other day.

It was back in the summer sometime that my son came home with a very small branch off a conifer from the neighbor’s yard.   It had interesting form in the short branch and I had the perfect little centerpiece to put it in.   I stabbed the end of the branch into the spikes and put it up at the bar in the sunlight.   I filled it with water and was happy anytime someone mentioned my “bonsai” that was in reality just a branch.  

The other day a small piece fell off and when I picked it up the needles were so sharp more than one stuck in my finger and fell off the piece.   I pulled them out and then investigated the rest because it wasn’t originally so dangerous a plant to interact with.   And that’s when I found out…the reason the plant was doing so well was it wasn’t thriving, it had died.   It had dehydrated and had kept the green color somehow.  

The water in the bottom of the dish must have been just evaporating off.   More falls off my branch if I bother it, so for now I’ve just stuck it off to the side and am going to perhaps let it be a “dried bonsai” decoration.    Here it is, cute little thing, isn’t it?

The Big Boy Update:   My son has had on multiple occasions a, well, screaming fit about going to Tae Kwon Do.   He just doesn’t want to go at all, period.    But once we get half-way there in the car he calms down and then has the most fantastic time in class.   They seem to really like him there and now that he has several friends in the same class, he is loving it (once he gets there, that is.)

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter asked at bedtime where dad was tonight.   I said, “he’s at trivia.”   She replied, “is that a new island?”