plant parent - the lesson i keep learning

i became an official plant parent in 2024 all because i wanted a plant on my desk. that year, ralph gifted me a zz plant for starters. it was low maintenance and didn't require much work.

the following year, on my birthday, dee, my best friend, gifted me a pothos, and that's when my plant mom journey really began.

i currently have 10 different plant species, and the one lesson they keep teaching me is patience.

philodendron florida

i went to a plant sale on november 2nd last year, and i was given an extra philodendron florida as a bonus for buying more plants. it was just a leaf on a stem that i wanted to propagate.

i got home and completely forgot to put it in soil.

by the time i remembered, it was already dying.

i put it in water in hopes of reviving it, but to no avail. i later made a mixture of soil and coco peat, chopped off the dead roots, and tried planting it instead.

still no luck.

nothing i tried over the next two months worked, and it finally died on january 29th this year.

pothos

everyone i knew who owned plants was always on about how pothos are generally easy to care for.

so what was i doing wrong?

my pothos looked lanky. the leaves were always withering, and it looked nothing close to the full, lush plant i imagined it would be.

after doing some research, i realized i was overwatering it.

how ironic.

too much care was actually stopping it from flourishing.

so over time, i reduced how much water i was giving it, added some coco peat, and started watering the leaves more regularly.

the result of that was bigger leaves, consistent growth, and a much fuller plant than before.

zzs

remember i got the zz plant two years ago?

i'd only repotted it once since then, but by november last year it was due for another one. that's when i realized i'd actually made a big mistake the first time around.

i'd planted it in a glass vase.

it looked nice, but the shape of the vase just wasn't convenient for the plant. it had matured, the rhizomes had spread, and the vase had become too tight for the plant.

now i had to figure out how to get it out while trying to salvage all the new growth.

i managed to save a few bulbs, but most of the new, juicy stems didn't make it.

and propagating from just the bulb takes significantly longer than propagating from one that already has a stem and leaves.

i was really bummed out because i was so proud of how far they'd come.

i repotted them in november last year.

i didn't see new sprouts until may this year.

the lesson

throughout all of this, there were moments where i'd get really frustrated, and then other moments where i'd feel bursts of joy whenever i'd see a new bud or a tiny new shoot.

sometimes they're so insignificant that only i, the owner, can tell the difference.

but what i notice is real, and that counts for something.

having patience is a transferable skill that applies to life in general.

it's rarely a straight line.

you have to be put in impatient situations to really know how patient you are.

sometimes you panic for a few hours. sometimes for a few days.

the lesson isn't that you'll never panic.

the lesson is learning how to recoup and collect yourself every single time it happens.

because eventually, if you keep showing up, you'll look down one day and notice a tiny new sprout.

and maybe no one else will notice it.

but you will, and sometimes that's all you need to keep going.

growth isn't always dramatic. sometimes it's a tiny sprout after months of waiting. sometimes it's one new leaf. sometimes it's just knowing the plant is still alive.

i think life is a lot like that too.

some easter eggs(photos) for making it to the end.

me at the plant sale last year

i really like this photo for some weird reason. looks artsy

some of my plants from my collection