House Plants

I looked around my home some years back and decided that it was missing something. I just couldn’t figure out what. I had done all I could do with the place given my limited interior design skills, but it still seemed like it wasn’t quite there. Then it came to me. Plants. That was it. What I really needed to jazz up the place was house plants.

Once I came to this realization, I decided that it was time to act. I was feeling enthusiastic about my plan, but also plagued with a vague sense of unease over my ability to care for actual living plants. I decided it might be best to start with some good quality silk, which I believe is a nice way of saying artificial, plants that require no upkeep. I purchased a few and positioned them strategically where I thought they were best suited, and then tried to convince myself that they looked great. They didn’t. They looked fake. There’s no other way to put it. I would have to take my chances on the real thing.

I began with a mystery plant that looked to me like a cross between a potted palm and a fern. I was never really sure, but it quickly died so I don’t guess it mattered. The next one I bought was another palm tree looking thing that acquired some sort of disease that grew under its leaves, and I had to toss that one out, too. You’d think I would have given up at that point, and you would be correct. I did, for a while anyway. Then my hesitancy to risk the life of another previously thriving, innocent plant was overcome by my determination to prove that I could not only keep a plant alive, but possibly even coax it to grow.

I kept trying, and I know you’ll be thrilled to learn that I have now successfully transformed the children’s rumpus room into a tropical sunroom. Actually the term “tropical sunroom“ might be a little, tiny bit exaggerated, but I like to think of it that way. After a few more false starts and missteps, I had gotten the hang of it, and that room is presently home to many plants that are for the most part alive and green. It’s entirely possible that I might even be able to keep them that way.