Houseplants are a gateway drug

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I've written before about how many years ago I'd kill plants just by looking at them* (*forgetting to water them). Now, I'm a full on "plant mother" as my wife calls me, nurturing plants, chatting to them, growing from seed, taking cuttings, growing veg and all sorts. But my gateway drug to this life was through houseplants.

Yes, I wanted that cool Instagram aesthetic okay! The garden outside seemed like an enormous project and it was, alongside full time work and Having No Money we sat it out and waited a good couple of years before starting work on it. I'd had a trio of cacti at university (IKEA, of course), but I somehow let that die. My Dad had to resuscitate them in the holidays. Years later, I was extremely cautious about houseplants in our new home, but started buying them in tiny pots from a friend who at the time owned a florist. We'd chat in the shop and he'd give me a generous discount while I wondered whether it was pointless, because I'd probably just let them die.

But something happened. They started... surviving. Miniature palms. An asparagus fern. The odd unknown plant that just happened to catch my eye in a garden centre's hot, overwhelming indoor plant section. We were gifted a large palm which took pride of place in the hallway until it got so goddamn healthy we had to move it into the dining room. 

I became quickly obsessed. What's that, a spare surface? Put a plant on it. Is that... is that a pot leftover from an orchid I killed years ago? Put a plant in it. The bathroom shelves groaned with plants. I got gifted a tradescantia cutting. It went in a macrame hanger (YES I said I wanted that cool Instagram aesthetic) and soon, it birthed twelve, TWELVE cuttings which I gave to friends, family, and anyone who I bumped into basically. 

I live in a one bedroom flat but I currently have twenty eight houseplants, some huge (palms, rubber plants) and some miniature (the sweetest Chinese money plant, baby succulents). For my birthday last year, my wife had a print specially made from a great lino cutting artist that says 'Plant Mother'. That's me. My little (and occasionally big) babies. I put them all in the shower. I haul them into the garden in summer for extra sunshine hits. I dust their leaves, repot them faithfully, and of course - Instagram them. What else?







Comments

  1. Helen McFebruary 16, 2021 at 2:27 PM

    Love this Ray! I need some tips to keep my plants alive!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rachel Morgan PoetryFebruary 17, 2021 at 11:03 AM

      Get a mister! And pop them in the shower once a couple of weeks to shower off the dust from their leaves so they can absorb more light. And if they're flopping, move them around the house, see where they sit happiest x

      Delete

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