One of the most rewarding (passive) activities to do is houseplant care.
Kinda like budo, you have to learn how to ‘nurture’ and take care of others (it’s something that my wise dorm security guard told me); houseplants are a great way to start to practice that.
I never put a crazy amount of work into plants to keep them alive–I always just remembered from Elementary School how plants essentially need sunlight and water…very simple.
I think a lot of people just forget to do it on a regular, scheduled basis, hence why a lot of plants die. My plants at MoHo always lived and grew super big, while my roommate’s and friends had theirs die…
I first got into plants when I visited the Netherlands (a super agricultural country) in 2012 and saw how many beautiful colors the orchids had—I also saw many of the big windows display them so beautifully. I could only imagine how happy those plants were just bathing in the sunlight 😂.
I grew my own…had like 12 orchids at one point. It was real cool to see them rebloom with my weekly watering and fertilizing schedule. I had them for a while until I had to move outta my dorm and had my friend with good windows take care of them..unfortunately, they had too strong of sunlight and didn’t do the consistent watering schedule…so yeah, they all eventually died 🙁 Even my lovely pink ones…
My current favorite plant is my Pink Princess Philodendron (gee, I wonder why :P). I didn’t think I would ever like a houseplant that didn’t bloom flowers, but since this one had some natural pink…hmm…
Philodendrons, in general, are apparently on NASA’s list of air purifying plants…so I figured that it would be a useful plant that can help kill 2 birds with one stone; provide aesthetically pleasing beauty while being healthy 😛
My coworker then began to teach me the whole way of “propagation”–my god, had no idea that you can basically ‘regenerate’ a lot of plants by breaking off a piece…that was so alien to me, because I always thought that if a flower or leaf was picked from a tree, that it would die because of the lack of nutrients…
Nope, not with a lot of houseplants…especially aroids:
I can essentially grow MORE of this pink beauty and even sell it!!!
It was nice to use up my nice pots that I cannot put soil in…A lot of houseplants habits that Baba did made more sense now. It was cool to see this, and this is a completely new realm that I’m starting to get to know and get used to.
The most amazing thing is seeing the new roots grow on a cutting…it’s sooo fucken cool. I also heard that with this particular plant, that once you make a cutting, the new growths on the original mother plant will have MOAR PINK variegation!!! 🤩🤩🤩
This plant also got very expensive, so I’m hoping that this thing will grow and I can sell this to help pay off for some stuff. They propagate rather easily:
I think because of this coronavirus outbreak and the order of being forced to work at home, I have been less exhausted at the end of the day, resulting in me being able to do my chores and maintenance tasks. The daily commute time, the daily makeup routine, etc.. have now been eliminated, so I can actually have enough energy and time to just properly organize and maintain my plants (oh my god, sooo much time wasted commuting!). NOW I can water my plants on a weekly basis and stuff, which helps keep the plants healthy and growing, resulting in me being able to see the positive changes that occur.
It has also been interesting to see how plants adapt and change when you cut it:
If you have a big, nice window, I recommend you getting a houseplant and watering it on a weekly basis. You can just look at the soil to see if it’s super dry–you’ll know. Or, if the leaves are sad and droopy, that means it’s real dehydrated. It’s a lot of fun to see and it’s also a good way to spend time at home during quarantine, without infecting others outside 😛
I have also began to grow appreciation for other (pink) plants:
My god…those beautiful, aesthetically pleasing Instagram posts are dangerous for shopaholics like moi…
But yeah, now that it’s transitioning to Spring and we are having our days longer, I’ll probably notice some more new growths 🙂
Especially from, my god, my variegated monstera albo borsigiana…jesus christ, that thing seriously needs to grow a new leaf…
But yeah, that’s for another time. I’ll also talk about my semihydroponics journey with houseplants and seeing how much easier it is to take care of healthy houseplants with this new growing medium.
Until then, order some houseplants online so that you don’t need to go outside! You can have them delivered to your door and you can order some cute pots to put them in!
For some beginner houseplants, I recommend the following:
- Pilea pepperomioides
- Monstera deliciosa
- Sweetheart hoya
- Variegated string of hearts
- Moonstone succulent
- Phalaenopsis orchid (make sure you fill your sink with water and have the plant soak in it, so that the water can go from the bottom–>up).
These are all plants that I’ve personally had and grew very quickly. Some of my other favorites have had slow growth, regardless of regular care. I’ll go more into those later.
In any case, have fun! I think any plant, even the difficult ones, are manageable so as long as you put the time and energy into the research and care! The internet has also been the best marketplace to buy any plant you want (don’t go basic and just buy that wtvr basic snake plant from Home Depot…come on now…).