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.