Houseplants are the Forgiving Sort

One of my favorite things about houseplants is their forgiving nature. You forget to water them? Most will spring back—at least partially. You forget to feed them? They slurp up the nutrients when you do finally fertilize and simply grow, grow, grow in response. Even when you forget to talk to them, they’re okay with that. When you do finally speak up and let your houseplants know where you’ve been and what you’ve been up to, they’re happy to listen to whatever you have to say.

With their forgiving nature comes the lack of complaints. Unlike people and even animals, they just don’t complain and whine and carry on about whatever. They simply keep putting one green leaf on after another, and if they bloom, one pretty flower and perhaps fruit after another.

Of course, there are those pickier plants that do take a stab or two at complaining. One that readily springs to mind is the maidenhair fern. Quite a primadonna, this plant will usually give up if you fail to water for long enough. If you just miss watering by a bit, she’ll give you several dead fronds, as if to warn you from ever forgetting about her princess self again.

Then there are those plants that you can abuse and ignore and they spring to attention with giddy glee when you do remember them. At the top of this list is the peace lily. This beauty lives up to her name by spreading peace wherever she goes. A peace lily can be drooping so terribly you think there is just no way to revive her, but soon after watering, she springs back to life and gives you a smile. Best thing, too, is that she has the most gorgeous flowers, and those blooms come when you grow her in medium light.

Then there are plants that troop through, no matter what, like pothos. I inherited a pothos plant from a school teacher, who would leave the plant in her classroom all summer long without any watering. Amazingly, when she came back in the fall and watered, the pothos would spring back to life. I suspect that perhaps a janitor/plant lover watered the pothos here and there. Either way, the plant did keep on living, despite not so good circumstances!

With all of this talk of forgiveness, let’s talk about forgiving yourself when you forget to water your houseplants, or don’t feed them often enough, or don’t see a pest invasion until the pest has overtaken the plant. Life gets in the way. We all know and live and breathe this. So just remember—houseplants are happy when you remember them again. And they are really all knowing. They see what’s happening in your home and life, and understand why your attention has been elsewhere.

When you do have time again for your houseplants and give them the TLC they need and deserve, they’re likely to spring back readily—happy to make you happy with vibrant, healthy growth.