The Otterly Life

My plant situation has changed. Well, my life situation changed, so my plant situation also changed. I left my job, so I left my office, so I left some of my office plants. I kept the ones I thought would survive, not thrive, in my apartment. I gave my beautiful philodendron plant away to a coworker down the hall, who later left the firm and did who knows what with the plant. The last time I talked to her, and it was a long time ago, she was debating whether to ask her new firm to take the plant down to D.C., or to move it to her apartment (or was it a house that she bought) in D.C., or just giving it away to someone else at the firm. I was really heartbroken, or I thought I was going to be really heartbroken, about giving away, leaving, abandoning, the philodendron. It had been with me for the better part of the five years I worked at the firm, but now, thinking about it and its unknown fate, I’m not really so broken up about it. It is a plant. I loved it and cared for it while it was my plant and in my (and my admin’s care). And now it is not. I hope it is living somewhere, thriving on someone else’s shelf or in someone else’s home, making their life as happy as it did mine. And if not, that’s okay. That’s that.

My propagations from the office philodendron are doing…okay? I left them in the sphagnum moss that I started them in, because I was too lazy. Leaves are paler, smaller, but I guess that is to be expected. The succulents I saved from the office are also doing okay, I guess? One of them is totally stretched out and every time I water it, a new leaf drops. I bought a lot of grow lights (and got six from my mom) so the succulents (and the propagations) are actually hanging in there. I’m not sure if any of the propagations will live. I’ve tried propagation succulents before with the natural light in the apartment, and all of them rooted, sprouted some very tiny leaves and died. These propagations are at this stage (tiny leaves, pre-imminent death). We shall see.

Other plant losses. Yesterday, I put my philodendron silver sword in the lobby of my apartment building (in the planter, with all the poles and plastic supports and twine) with note for someone to give it a new home. I think it has spider mites, or had spider mites, or something is wrong with it. It was browning at the edges and when I came home after the cruise, the bottom leaf was totally yellow-brown and translucent. It was suffering. I could not tell why it was sad or what was wrong with it. It has been suffering this way since the summer. I tried to save it by spraying it all over the place with all sorts of random soaps and insecticides and what not. (I actually sprayed all of my plants in the summer because I was afraid of contamination, but now I’m too lazy and I’m not seeing any bugs or pests (fingers crossed) on my other plants, so I’m leaving them be, for now.) I’m too tired now, and it was making me nervous that a pest infestation was somehow developing, and I was letting it develop in the apartment. The worst I’ve had before was fungus gnats and they went away pretty quickly after I started letting my plants completely dry out. The apartment is not large, so you can’t effectively quarantine anything. If this philodendron had any sort of pest, it is just a matter of time before it spreads. So, I put the whole thing out in the lobby. I was actually pretty sad to let go of the planter, which was one of the first plant things I ever bought. When I went back out later in the afternoon, it was gone. Either the super put it in the trash, or someone took it home. I’m hoping for the latter. (And I hope they known to quarantine a new plant to see if there are any pests before introducing the new plant to their home environment.) And again, I was pretty heartbroken when I first took it to the lobby. It felt like putting a child up for adoption, almost. Like, several, several degrees from that, but you get the idea. But now, a day later, I feel okay about. I hope someone new, someone with the right resources and skills and love will give it a new home. And if the super put it in the trash, I hope he at least saved the planter. It’s a nice planter.

As I sit here, I feel more and more paranoid that the pest infestation (if it could be called that at all) on the silver sword has spread or is spreading. The overkill approach would be to spray all of my plants and clean them again. I was going to wait until spring, or at least when it starts getting warmer. But maybe that’ll change.

At this stage, though, I’m starting to think I would be happier if I downsized my plant collection, if I could even be called a collection. I like my trailing plants. They seem okay with my level of care (or level of carelessness) which is watering them every four weeks (or when they start looking super, super curly and sad). The snake plants are the same. The succulents, I don’t even know sometimes but they are hanging in there. The fussier, prettier, more interesting plants either decided they hated my apartment environment or died as a result of my poor plant parenting.

And I am not always energized or invigorated by taking care of plants. I feel like I used to feel that in the past. I feel it less and less now. They take a long time to water. They keep growing all over the place. They are getting heavier and harder to repot. We are running of room for some of the bigger plants. Every time I prune I need to save the clippings and propagate them. So I have half-hearted propagations everywhere that I don’t know what to do with. I have three bins of empty pots and random plant supplies and tools that I rarely use that just take up space.

It may well be time for my plant situation to change again.