If you would have asked me 3 years ago if I would currently be low key addicted to buying plants, I would have laughed in your face. For a long time I was not interested in anything plants. I enjoyed getting flowers or bouquets from my husband (boyfriend at the time!) But other than that I was horrible. To the point when I did get the occasional aloe plant I killed it. That’s right. I killed the un-killable plant. Fast forward to now, and here I am. KILLING the plant game. Maybe even going as far as saying I am killing it a little bit too much!
Becoming a plant person overnight didn’t happen immediately. My mom always had plants. Though she prefers cactus and the likes, even succulents too. Low maintenance plants was her favorites. My grandparents also had plants in their house. African violets and things like that too. Then you have my Uncles. They have a lot of tropical and cool plants. If I’m being honest, their home kind of inspired me to pick up a hobby or kind of a passion, even if not there yet. In the summer they have plants all around their deck and pool. It really is a relaxing oasis. When the wind blows and breezes go and everything just feels calm. I wanted that too. It wasn’t until we bought our forever home with an incredible deck spanning the entire house that I wanted to do something with the space, and in my own home too. Keep in mind, I am Canadian and live in an Eastern province. So we cannot have plants outside all year round. However we can for a good chunk of the year as the weather becomes warmer. Which as the collection grows it becomes more and more of a headache to keep them inside than outside and then reversed again. But the ambiance that it brings by having live, living plants on the deck as you sit in the warmth is just indescribable.
One of the major things that prevented me from being a plant person was that I truly believed that plants needed to be in direct sun light for so long per day. Which may be true for some but there is also a whole butt load of plants that require minimal light or even just indirect light. Knowing this has been a game changed in terms of how I look at plants. They can go in so many various places that I don’t have to put them all in the sunniest window for example. One thing I do admit though is apparently you should put plant in windows according to their place in the world? Ie: north facing window etc? I never know or I should say I never remember how my house is facing. I always just go by the sunlight it can get and go from there. If after a few weeks the plant seems to be struggling or not keeping up with this fast paced home, well, it gets moved it warned it will end up in the back yard with the venus fly trap that I bought and it was way way way too above my plant knowledge at the time.
One thing I have learned on this journey is I am a big plant person. Who routinely picks plants based on how they look. I sometimes research plants that I enjoy the look of but overall if I like how they look I just pick it up. I also try not to spend an abundance of money on plants. Since I am relatively new I really don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars to have them die or something. Which is extremely hard to do because it is addicting. I received my 1st plant since moving back a begonia that my best friend from elementary gave me. I have been working my hardest to try and keep it going and growing and it is huge right now. To think it was so small and now it has grown so much is wild to me. I didn’t think that was going to be the beginning of this journey as a plant Mom.
As I mentioned before though, unfortunately there has been some casualties among the batch. The Venus fly trap plant was far too beyond my skills. Eventually it ended up in the backyard because I was becoming low key depressed from looking at it. A prayer plant was also another causality that was added to the “Do not buy again” list. For some reason I thought it was doing so well and then it suddenly wasn’t doing well at all. And finally my Crotons. I had bought 3 of them because again, I buy plants based on how they look. And they looked cool. Of the 3 of them I have 2 left however I just brought 2 of them inside in the fall so hopefully when this publishes they will still be hanging on. The croton that was a green and gold flecked one is also in the backyard graveyard. For some reason it just did not to very well at all in my bathroom which I swore I thought was the best place for it. Then it was briefly moved outside to literally fend for itself when it was growing new green leaves! But again, weather was not on my side and I brought it inside to the dining room table. The leaves all but fell off and they dropped and drooped. It ended up in the yard.
Regardless if you were someone like me who absolutely did not want to have to take care of plants, or you are someone like me who now has over 10 plants in their kitchen alone, start small. Find a passion and run with it. Or at least give something unexpected a try, it may just become your new obsession like me!
Stacey J. Girard 