My friend, Mama of Mama’s Empty Nest and I have found something else in common. We kill indoor plants.
Now this is not necessarily a good thing to share, but since we are online, there is no way to really blame each other for our utter failures.
Oh, I know people whine about growing things indoors, but we are not just whiners. We have exceptional tales to tell.
Adventures in Real Life Indoor Planting
I tried nurturing “real” plants for many years, but even the guaranteed tried and true varieties only lasted moments in the toxic atmosphere of my home.
Thinking the poor things were strangling from drought, I would water – well, maybe over-water – and wound up with overflows, muddy looking carpets, and sudden death (of the plants).
Spraying for blights and other crawly things amounted to more polluted air inside. I wasn’t out to kill humans, so had to stop that, and guess what – the critters won. The plants lost.
Watching living things droop and finally expire from over attention or abandonment is a painful process.
And although real living plants are supposed to be healthful indoors, it suddenly dawned on me that an alternative to life and health might be beauty and serenity at home. And this meant delving into the world of fake foliage. In other words: PLASTIC!
Yes, Plastic HAD to be the Answer!
So I gave up trying to grow living things indoors (except for my son, of course, who has somehow survived).
I figured plastic plants might live. Does this make sense?
Things started out just fine.
The new, look-real varieties looked so real that I even planted some outside. The geraniums I potted for the deck looked spectacularly real – from a distance anyway. I hate lying to the public though, so we don’t have geraniums on the deck anymore. It’s much too hot out there for them.
But the indoor story is that I quickly purchased a stately fake (yes, plastic) rubber plant. It was almost as tall as a tree and I called it Mr. Stately, because it stood so handsomely in the corner of the living room. Big green leaves added a flavor of the tropics. And, Ahhhhh! No maintenance. No care. No watering, fertilizing or spraying.
Then, one day, a leaf fell off.
I am not kidding. It just fell off.
Well that did not make too much difference since there was plenty of foliage left.
Then another leaf fell off.
Maybe Mr. Stately was standing in too much sunlight so it weakened the connections. So I moved him to a shadier locale.
More leaves fell off.
Mr. Stately was not so handsome anymore.
And finally, my plastic rubber plant died!
So Mama of Mama’s Empty Nest – can you top this story? Do we have this in common too – the death of plastic plants?
I haven’t given up on indoor gardening yet though. There is now a lovely plastic palm tree in my living room that really does look like the real thing.
It has only lost one palm frond so far.
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Oh Dor, I love you so! Our commonalities abound and you make me laugh which is a truly wonderful thing. I often tell my friends that it’s true I do not have a green thumb when it comes to indoor plants, I have a black thumb! I even killed a cactus!!! You know what this means, don’t you? I’m going to have to answer your challenge with a post of my own which I’ll link to yours. 😉
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Now that’s strange…
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Ooooh – like I said, I can’t wait to hear about the cactus. We are a devastating pair!
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You have a gift!
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Hmmm.I am a great gardener but I kill indoor plants too. As if that isn’t bad enough, my cat eats silk plants. Yep, she prefers silk and lets the real ones alone. So no plants at all unless they are on very high shelves!
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Oh, Lilly, I love you! 🙂
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Maybe we should start a club? 🙂
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Serve chocolate and margaritas and I’m there!
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My mom has a house full of beautiful plants, and always has had. Some of her plants are years and years old, but do you think I can do the same. Noooo! In the garden yes but indoors, I just can’t get it right 🙂
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🙂
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You are now part of an elite club! 🙂
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😉
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ll I am on the other end of this I can’t kill ANYTHING so by Aug it will appear I live in a JUNGLE 🙂
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Blahahah! You are definitely one of the life-giving souls on this earth Eunice. Yours must be a very happy jungle! LOL! 🙂
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🙂 lol
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smiling. Gosh, it can be so hard to keep these indoor plants alive! Barry watches over most of ours, but I’ve had to help water on the ladder since his knee troubles. We have mostly spider plants up high.
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I remember killing those spider plants too – and they are pretty hardy. I hope Barry’s knee improves soon so you can stay off the ladder. 🙂
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[…] countered with a story about the time she killed her plastic rubber plant in this post. She wanted to know if I could top that one and so we’ve entered into a plant […]
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Now this takes the cake! I’ve never heard of killing a plastic plant. LOL
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True story. Honest. 🙂
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