What plants depend on you to stay alive now, and if the answer is none, describe one from your past.--al

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), December 13, 1999

Answers

I have nine plants in my care, as well. Let's see... A sort of orange plant. It supposedly produces little oranges. I have no evidence to support that in the two years I've had the little guy, but he's hanging in there.

I also have this big viney thing my husband had way back from when he lived at home with his parents. It likes a lot of water and bounces back when neglected.

There is a little African Violet that someone at work abandoned because she couldn't get it to blossom. I felt bad and took it in. No blossoms, but it's green and healthy.

A Hedera Ivy that my sister could no longer take care of. Every time I think it's not going to make it, it pulls through.

A wee little cactus that my sister-in-law left behind when she moved to Arizona.

And finally three plants that used to be in one pot together. Five years ago my husband gave me the three for Valentine's day. They got so large that we had to separate them. Two of them are doing very well. One is a Tri-color mini palm or something like that, the other is English Ivy. The third one that is somehow still alive? I don't know what it is but it has a woody stem and pretty white and green leaves. He's hanging in there.

I love these guys but have to keep them at work. If they were home our little Squeaky cat would eat them!

-- Amy (Bugbug73@cs.com), December 14, 1999.

Oh! The ninth plant is a "foster" plant of sorts. I keep him for a lady in my office who isn't in very often and needs someone to care for him. I don't know what he is but he is very sensitive to the environment around him. :o)

-- Amy (Bugbug73@cs.com), December 14, 1999.

i keep trying to grow ivy. i bought two small ones when i first moved into my house, but kept forgetting to water them, and they died. i recently bought another little one for my office at work, dubbed "mr. sad plant" because it got so droopy, but it got over watered, and died. i am now trying not to kill an new ivy, one i inherited here at work, who has been dubbed "mr. sad plant, jr.". it is presently dying. i don't expect it to last much longer. waiting in the wings, is a silk ivy i plan to bring once mr. sad plant, jr. is gone. i'm pretty sure i won't kill the silk one, but one never knows.

-- hez (lmjaliashez42@hotmail.com), December 14, 1999.

I care for no plants now.

I did get several plants sent after my father died. Most had no information or card or sticker or whatever about what the plant was, much less how to care for it, so i ended up giving them away to the wife of a friend who is really into gardening and plants. It does seem strange that people send plants without any sort of labels or instructions. If one knew what kind of plant it is, one could look up how to care for it. This practice seems exceedingly odd to me, but I don't control how society operates. I guess it is part of my practical side, but when i am the sender, i tend to send fruit baskets rather than plants, just because they are usually more useful.

-- Joe Shedlock (joeshedlock@mindspring.com), December 14, 1999.

I have a pretty good record with plants, and in fact the last few years I have run the plant booth at our church fair. When my Mom died, I got three azaleas and a hydrangea. The azaleas did fine in their pots, but when Rich put them in the ground, one died and the other two are looking really bad. I guess the soil in that location is bad... it is where the pots were, so there's no major light or temperature difference. The hydrangea struggled along in the back for years, but when we got the dog, we moved it to the front, where it is simply florishing. I just told my cousin, who gave it to me,(as well as some wonderful words about my mother) how much pleasure it is still giving me.

I have one Christmas cactus blooming, and my cat murdered the other one, though I'm trying to resurrect the bits.

Spider plants are easy. My problem with a lot of these things is that they propagate so much, and eventually I have to (gasp!) THROW OUT seedlings and things. It seems ungrateful, somehow. That's one reason I've been doing the plant booth.

-- Jan (fossilfreak@geocities.com), December 14, 1999.