It is Tuesday and time to write a 'Slice of Life."
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It wasn’t simply Tony and I that were oh-so-pleased to have our home remodeling completed this past fall – my houseplants are overjoyed, too. They have been basking in the open floor plan and the extra light this great room now offers. They have grown and flourished over the winter. Let me tell you about this happiness.
Most of the remodeling was completed while the weather here in Maryland was still quite warm, so I moved the larger plants outside, to avoid the drywall dust, chemicals smells, and other hard aspects of the construction process.
Unfortunately, their time ‘in the wilderness’ coincided with some powerful rainstorms. One week when I was away from home, they received a torrent of watering, unlike anything they had ever experienced before. Every houseplant was swamped with water. I had to lay their pots on the side and drain them as best I could. Plant “TLC” began in earnest, and their return to the house in mid-October was a time of love and rejoicing.
Hardy plants like the philodendron and the dracaena recovered quickly. The fern was bent and nearly broken in two; I have been encouraging its strength with a velcro tie. This fern is probably my oldest plant, given to me in the late 1990s by my mother, on a rare trip by her and my father to our house for Thanksgiving. The fern sits happily by the light of the french doors, and is simply bursting with these fun yellow ‘seed’ flowers.
I was quite worried about my peace lilies; their leaves were torn and ragged, they were badly beaten by these late summer storms. You wouldn’t know it now! They are healthy and strong, vibrantly reaching upwards, as if exclaiming “YES!! WE ARE HOME!!” Here is one’s photo; you can see new growth happening:
Let me tell you about dear Anthurium; this personality owns the room and wants her story shared. Anthurium (and, yes, I call her by her full name) was a thank you gift from a parent at the end of a school year, some six or seven years ago. She is a smallish plant, about one foot in circumference, and I didn’t put her outside during the remodeling, I simply kept her upstairs – with plastic curtains at the stairwell keeping her apart from all the construction mess.
Fresh from the florist’s shop, she was regal: shiny green leaves and two of the most perfect bright red, waxy, heart-shaped flower spikes. These cheery flowers bloomed for many months, and then began to fade, finally disappearing entirely. We were working on our communication. Unlike most of my houseplants, I had trouble understanding Anthurium’s needs. I found her to be a rather exhausting combination of aloof and demanding. She finds it very hard to relax. I want to call her “prissy” but she is a friend, and that feels quite rude.
Finally, I found the perfect room for her: the upstairs guest room. Anthurium lives at the edge of bright and sunny, not wanting to be out ‘mixing’ with others – afraid she will fry her leaves – but definitely not receding into the shadows. She is a wee bit needy, expecting me to check in every day, offering her water; she likes her soil ‘just so’ – not dry, not overwet, just right.
Her guest room home is also known as Bird’s room, and Anthurium dearly missed hearing Bird’s chatter from the nearby crib while the kitchen and family room were remodeled. Bird was gone for many months, and, of course, construction dust and noise kept straying up the stairs, messing with her perfect little world. I feared Anthurium wasn’t going to make it through.
Well, Anthurium has proven to be as strong and resourceful as her housemates. Anthurium is so excited that the remodeling is complete that she is celebrating with a new flower – look closely, this sweet red growth is just beginning, a mere inch in length at present. I’m excited to watch her bloom!
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