The Plants Are Alive

I had a friend who was really good at plants. He was inventing new ways to keep them alive indoors in cities, in small spaces.

I craved his wisdom.

“Bojark how do I keep plants alive the way you do.”

“I don’t know man, I can’t really give you tips because so much of it is plant knowledge. The computer will give you most of it.”

Inspired by this, I went to a plant store with healthy-looking plants and bought a pothos. I asked the woman selling me the plant how to take care of it. “Water it once every 13 days.”

Pothos is famously easy. On day 5 it had yellow leaves already. I was assuaged by a buddy — it’s winter, plants aren’t meant to live in winter. But this specific plant was living well, just 5 days ago, in a different apartment, in winter.

I googled it, and the answer was that either the plant was under or overwatered. There was a 50/50 chance I would get it right. It was day 8, and so I thought maybe I had overwatered it a little in eagerness earlier, when I watered it just a little when I brought it home. I put it through GPT, it said it was overwatered.

I had fallen ill along with my plant. When I was better, my plant was not. It occurred to me that I could take the plant back to the store and see what the lady says.

I dressed up the plant in a bag so that it doesn’t get too cold and carried it to the store, shamefully.

“What did you do?” said the owner.

She did not hesitate to look it over. “I will look after it for a few days, see if it perks up. I will water it all the way through, and then that should do it.” A week later I came back to get it, and it was completely cured.

I asked what she did. “It was just thirsty.” So I had gotten it wrong, GPT got it wrong, and her initial instruction not to water it for 13 days was wrong.

Since then I had put it in a larger terra cotta pot when it seemed like it was starting to wilt — maybe the roots need more space — and then watering it whenever it seems like it will be thirsty soon.

If you asked me “how to water it” I would just tell you the vague instruction — water it when it seems like it needs water.

Thus is my initiation into plants.

Something changed for me after this experience. Seeing the plant start to die under my watch and then come back to life under someone else’s did convince me that something about this seemingly random process really was not random, and if the instructions are sometimes not seeming correct, then I still can rely on my faculties of observing the plants a lot more.

I had kept a parlor palm alive since then too. I make sure to put these plants in places where I see them. If I am looking at them every day, I do notice how they are doing.

With every plant that is healthy for a while, I give myself permission to get a new plant. And so now I get to have a third plant.

I do not have a green thumb yet, but at least know now more about what people mean about the expression.