My rubber plant (tree?) has new leaves on every branch!! Thanks, dear Rain Kachina, for your wonderful visit last week--and today, too! You scrubbed off all the dust & pollen and worked your magic on the plant, which had been languishing in the house until I put it out on the balcony. You just never know, do you. Life lurks in our dust-covered days until it gets what it needs to flourish.
p.s. I'm posting these on Snoozeville Chronicle, too, which is my daily journal, recently revived.
So pretty. I feel sorry for my houseplants; they never quite have what they need. When I had more space I used to bring in a gigantic hibiscus (really big - card table sized) and it sulked all winter.
ReplyDeleteMine not only sulked, it wheezed and coughed....
ReplyDeleteYour rubber tree/plant is lovely. So now that it's been dusted, guess it can breathe.
ReplyDeleteI've belatedly watered my dwarf mandarin orange tree in a half-barrel on my patio. The leaves appear rather dry, so hope I haven't traumatized it to a degree that it dies. How could I be so careless? I live in fear authorities will descend in the middle of the night to arrest me, or at best cite me, for plant abuse, tree assault, or orange neglect. If I don't blog more you'll know what happened.
I can't imagine the authorities will come snooping around your patio in the middle of the night. and if they do, the orange tree will be asleep, happily digesting its recent watering. THEY (people who know about plants) say overwatering is much worse than underwatering. I moved my rubber plant out onto the patio because it never dried out when it was in the house. It always felt soaked, no matter how many days or weeks passed between waterings. whatever, it definitely was not happy inside. So out it went, and I forgot about it. (in my experience, that's been the key to every one of my successful attempts at caring for a plant.) (actually, both successful attempts). there was a third time, too but that was too long ago to contemplate. that was when s. francis joseph and i (both 17 years old) were assigned care for (sweep, dust, polish, etc.) the main floor hallway in the novitiate. at the end of the hall by the big, tall windows was what we called the jungle--a big square table full of plants that had been given as gifts to the sisters. There were about a dozen African violets, and I bragged to s.f.j. that my mother had great fame in Fargo as a healer of African violets. Anyway, we watered those violets till they gurgled, and they shortly became covered with blossoms! After we got assigned to our next chore, the violets withdrew to listlessness.
ReplyDelete"Benign neglect" is my motto when it comes to vegitation. I figure that, without a will to live, the plant has no business existing. *giggling*
ReplyDeleteCop Car
I was given a GIANT poinsettia at Christmas, I mean GIANT!... Waist high! Lovely until the middle of January but then what do you do with such a thing? I tried to ignore it, and when I went to UK I just didn't even water it, but it survived, so now I have it out on the patio, somewhat leafless, but still alive. I'm hoping it will succumb to the ravages of 30C sunshine, but it's still alive. Damn.
ReplyDeleteHooray for your rubber plant. Lets hope it will supply you with some rubber at harvest season.
CC, you are STRICT with your plants. I approve. They should work for their living just like the rest of us. giving out oxygen and all that.
ReplyDeleteShammy, I have never forgotten seeing poinsettias growing in people's yards in L.A. GREAT BIG RED PLANTS! gorgeous.
I got a poinsettia from the boss one xmas when I worked in Iowa. We kept it in the "library," which was a windowless, airless room in which my cohort Mo and I did our editing. I of course was a plant-care moron, and over the following spring, all the leaves fell off my poinsettia, save three. Then the company hired a woman named Lisa to come take care of all the plants. Lisa brought my poinsettia back to full leafhood...not only that, after i got promoted to director of editing and writing and got a swell office with a freakin' closet even, she told me to keep the plant in the closet starting sometime around halloween. and woddya know, the dear poinsettia turned all RED again just in time for xmas!!
Maybe I should try that.
ReplyDeleteyeah...it imitates the natural light, which is in short supply around that time of year, and that's what makes the leaves turn red....just like the trees, sort of. have a swell day!!
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