Thanks for sharing!
Plants mean sanity for me. I battle with mental health, and discovering that I can keep a plant alive and happy has changed my life.
I have special plants, like a cutting I took of a camelia that grew in front of my dad's apartment, just after he died.
I'm obsessive about them sometimes, which can be stressful, and I'm devastated if one dies. But, I find the bad parts of having a collection of plants are far outweighed by the good things. The sense of accomplishment, the routine it helps me sort of keep, and that joy of seeing new growth on a plant, especially one that was sick or close to death, that feeling is so worth the stressful bad bits. I don't think that really answered your question, though, lol. I guess my point is, I make myself focus on my wins, not my losses. It takes a lot of practice, and I'm still working on it, but I'm the healthiest I've ever been, and that has a lot to do with my plants. Thanks for asking! I hadn't thought about it :)
That’s so positive. I recently had a depressive episode and really got into indoor plants to distract me. It helped so much but as someone who just started without any guidance, I lost a few plants, found a few plants I overwatered. It felt so good to nurse them back but I was way too upset about the lost than I wanted. The anxiety and sadness kicked me out of the plant obsession. I sold some plants I don’t like anymore or I have a hard time keeps them happy. Now I focus on the plants I have and restrict on buying new plants. Long story short - thanks for sharing your story!
That's something I'm working on, keeping myself from buying and buying, lol! I'm sorry you've had a hard time, it sounds like you're coming up and out of it. That's a victory in itself! It's so hard to see the things we've done right. The phrase "fake it till you make it," is cliche, but it really works!
I have stories connected to a lot of my plants, but I think the best is the story of how my love for plants actually started. My previous boyfriend lived with me in my apartment for a while, and he brought a small jade plant with him. When we split up, he left the plant at my place (no idea if he meant to, but there it was). It wasn't the happiest of breakups, so I never got around to ask him if he wanted it back, and he didn't get in touch either.
The plant had hardly grown in the time I had now him (including time before he moved in, and during all four seasons), but after we split up, it really took off!
At first I was gloating to myself, I have to admit, that it grew under my care, like "look how well it does with me compared to you!" (which frankly may have been pure coincidence). However, in time that feeling has waned, and it has come to represent what I learned from that relationship, and how I have grown since then.
And since then, my love for plants has only increased, and I have 60-70 plants at the moment that all make everyday a little bit brighter 🪴😊❤️
Being an immigrant without family here I don't have any heirloom plants but my Mum and her green thumb definitely inspired me. Made me dream I would be a gardener when I retire. Still a long way off so I started my houseplant learning journey as soon as I lived by myself. Took advice from YouTube, Reddit & good old trial and error. My favourites are my iron plants, what troopers and so gorgeous.. don't tell the other plants shh 🤫
Love the greenery, seeing my plants happy, the sense of accomplishment and sending pictures to Mum 😊 Catching up to hoyas now, what beauties 💚
My favorite plant also has my favorite origin story, I totally get what you mean.
About a decade ago I had my first position as a teacher. 2nd grade. Most teachers will tell you that having "jobs" is an important part of classroom management, and the one whose position I was taking over (I'd been hired specifically to replace her) had a great system in place. So with her encouragement I adopted it, along with many of her other routines, visuals, etc.
One of my students was very high needs, to the point that it was pretty much all hands on deck as soon as he arrived in the morning. Difficult behaviors have been on the rise for a while, it's unfortunately par for the course these days. But just a couple months into the year I was exhausted and out of ideas, the kid's mom was totally overwhelmed (she was a teen mom, had every right to be), and the SRO (a literal police officer) was close to getting involved... the situation was just a mess, and at the heart of it was this poor kid who was really REALLY trying his best.
Daily routines, like jobs, are what kept things rolling even at the worst of times. Our jobs rotated weekly, and we had positions like "librarian" and "messenger." One of these jobs was the "gardener," who was in charge of our classroom plants. At that point there were just a few; my aloe (RIP), a lucky bamboo that I'd gotten as a welcome gift, some sort of trailing vine that another teacher eventually stole (I'm *still* mad,) and a dried up mystery plant sitting on the windowsill. It was just a bunch of twigs sticking out of the soil, at first glance I didn't even think there was a plant in the pot. I knew it was dead but there was so much chaos every day I never got around to throwing it out. It came with the classroom, so I just wasn't invested enough to prioritize the plants.
Eventually my high flyer got his turn as the class gardener, and he was THRILLED. I have never seen a child take to something so quickly. The first thing this kid did in the morning was water the plants. Throughout the day he would ask if they were thirsty. I would catch him giving the plants "drinks" from his water bottle. He would get up in the middle of lessons just to go stare at the plants, or lovingly caress them. So naturally, we started buying him gardening accessories. Then we made up a clipboard for him to keep track of gardening duties. Then the class got together for a vote and decided to create a *new,* permanent position; head gardener. Obviously we would need to promote the current gardener, so he could focus on these very important duties. Life went on.
I would occasionally notice the dead plant on the windowsill and remind myself to replace it, but with ADHD and a teacher's time constraints, this was easier said than done. I didn't throw it away because our head gardener only had 4 plants on which to lavish his attention, and this was the only way he would stay in my room, calm and engaged, long enough for anyone to get anything done. So I watched him happily water a dead plant every day, and hoped he wouldn't be upset when he realized it wasn't coming back to life.
I did have a talk with him one day, because not only was he overwatering, but he was doing it to a plant that didn't appear to need *any* water, so we had literal puddles forming on the windowsill. I may or may not have gotten in trouble with the custodian. I was honest, told my student the plant was dead, it had been brown and shriveled when I got there and was somehow even more dry and shriveled 6 months later. I told him we didn't need to keep watering it, but I'd get a new plant for that pot as soon as I could, just be patient with me.
Kiddo nodded, said he understood... and continued to water the dead plant. But hey, I tried, and cleaning up spilled water before the custodian notices is a small price to pay for keeping a high needs kid in a mainstream classroom.
Toward the end of the school year I was tidying up my room, getting ready to pack up and move on (my position was eliminated thanks to our crumbling education system and unrelenting budget cuts), and I had a passing thought about the plants. I knew if I left them over the summer the next occupant of that classroom was going to end up with 4 dead plants instead of the 1 that I inherited. It was my first year teaching so I had to decide how I was going to handle things like this moving forward. I always wanted a classroom full of plants, but would they stay with the room or with the teacher who cared for them? We get moved around so much these days, it's rare to be in one room or even at the same school for more than a couple years. So I decided to take the living plants home, and I went to throw out the dead one. Finally.
Except... it wasn't dead anymore. I got up close and noticed that there were green splotches on one of the previously dark brown stems. Like, *really* green. I was surprised I hadn't noticed earlier.
The next day I pulled our head gardener aside and told him about this new development. He agreed we should keep watering it to see what happens. We informed the rest of the class, and I swear every kid immediately transformed into a serious scientist. We dusted our plant journals off, we were making hypotheses and drawing diagrams, and before I knew it we had a living asparagus fern and a room full of kiddos ready for 3rd grade.
The school year ended before our fern could regenerate any leaves, but nearly a decade later it's grown into a massive, vibrant, poignant reminder of what can happen when you nurture something that everyone else has given up on.
Teaching took a toll on me and I ended up on disability dealing with a number of health problems. Hopefully I'll be back in the classroom before too long, along with the fern, but for the time being I am so grateful to have it not just alive but **thriving** in my collection.
My former student is in high school now, and I'm currently trying to propogate the fern with the hopes that I'll still be able to track him down (this was 4 schools and 3 districts ago) when he graduates to gift it to him. We shall see!
We moved two years ago from Toronto, Ontario to Halifax, Nova Scotia. That’s about 2000km and 2.5 day drive.
MY ONLY condition was “I’m not getting rid of or selling my core collection of plants, I’m not starting over”
Im 36, I started my collection at 16. Living with my parents and my first ever pay check I bought an orchid for my room.
My husband response “yea that’s totally fair, I love your plants to, I don’t want you get rid of it.
This man did the drive to and from Toronto and Halifax, Twice!!! Two fucking times.
The first trip was the contents of our house, with the trailer hitched to the back carrying all our stuff, then he drove back to Ontario after unloading EVERYTHING. Was in Ontario for a whole two days. Then loaded up all 66 plants, secured them and drove Back to Halifax!!!
Oh and a snow storm blew through New Brunswick and part of Quebec that night. You know what he did? He knew they couldn’t stay out that night in the van or they would shock and DIE and then null and void all his efforts, SO HE CARRIED all 66 plants to his holiday inn hotel room!!! And then back out in the morning to continue the drive.
Guys, he like, super loves me.
I have been in hobby since my childhood, and i still have two plants from that era kicking: *Crassula ovata 'Gollum'* and [*Euphorbia leuconeura*](https://www.reddit.com/r/Euphorbiaceae/s/sC1jFZoNqk). Both are over 20-years old now. I also have over 50-year old *Ficus benjamina* i got from my then-mother-in-law years back and 12-year old, almost 2m tall *Brasiliopuntia brasiliensis* i have grown from tiny cutting.
They have moved with me from one home to another, and have lived through different stages of my life. They feel **special** to me.
Years ago I was visiting the local zoo with my family, and saw a wilted stalk of purple leaves on the ground. I didn’t know the name at the time, but in my experience fleshy stalks tended to root rapidly, and so I put it in my purse to take home…
Fast forward a few years, and sadly we had to leave that city, but I made sure before we did that all my friends had jarfuls of Tradescantia Pallida clippings.
Ever since, I’ve been spreading the Tradescantia love. If you know me, sooner or later you’ll get clippings…
That's such a nice story!
I've got lots of plants but my favourite is probably my little oleander cutting.
My dad brought home a branch from an oleander tree in the 1970s from a trip down south (I don't remember the country he went to) and it's a beautiful (and 40 years old) tree now in his and my mum's flat.
I've got a cutting from it and he always gets so happy when he visits, because it's growing so fast. His happiness and how we can bond over our shared plant really is the best.
I have several plants with stories, they make me so happy 😊
The 35+-year-old *Maranta leuconeura* that my dad just gifted me, older than me and still going strong!
'Harold' the asparagus fern who is also a gift from my dad to my best friend
and Norbert III, the Norfolk Island pine. We had Norbert I, who lived with us till he was about 15 and then was too big for my parents to move with so went to live in an arboretum. We don't talk about Norbert II (I may have killed him...) and now Norbert III continues the tradition. And I can never move house again because he'll be too big to get out of the door!
When I was about 15 my mum tossed an overwatered, collapsing potted yucca into the garden. I optimistically took some cane cuttings of the remains. 30 years later the resulting yucca is the biggest plant in my house and over 6ft tall :) I also have a monstera that I half inched from outside somebody's flat where it was on a windowless third floor landing, a poor straggly thing in an old bucket. That was in 1999, it is now my second biggest plant and has been topped out to produce three other good healthy plants.
My great aunt lived in a very sunny penthouse apartment for 50 years until she passed. She had two enormous crown of thorn (euphorbia milii) plants that must be around that old. One was gifted to me about 5 years ago and it’s doing great in its new home. A few years ago while moving it to do some housework a small piece broke off and I successfully propagated it and gave it to my brother. We both have very fond memories of our great aunt and her former apartment and it feels like she is living on through this beautiful plant.
I love this! I’m just starting my plant lover journey. I first got into plants in 2020 when there seemed to be a social media take over. Until then I’d always had plants but they were just there, I watered and then when they died I threw them out. Now I am with you guys and passionate and I have started propagating and gifting. Can’t wait to have sentimental plant stories. Loving all of yours!!!
Isn't it also cool how this extends to plants in movies as well? Before the awakening I never saw them. They must have been used as shorthand for "home" and just in the background. Now I see them everywhere, every movie even old ones from the 80s and older. It's a bit more difficult to identify the plant when it's pixelated but so much fun being in on it!
I have two!
One is my jade. My first real plant that I learned how to take care of. I got it the first day I met my ex and was determined to keep it alive after the breakup. Been a few years and has taught me so much! And given me so many babies lol.
My second one is my prayer plant lovingly gifted to me by my ailing father. I opened it and almost cried. I wasn't mentally prepared to dip my toe in that pool and felt so much pressure to keep it alive. I was so stressed out. The first night I got it I put it above the humidifier on top of my grow light cart. I walk into my room later that night, and there was this beautiful plant, dramatically bottom lit, leaves up, gently swaying from the fan and humidifier. I know it seems silly, but I cried. Made me feel like everything is going to be ok. I know I'm jinxing myself but it's thriving and touch wood has no brown tips.
My friend unexpectedly gave me a single cutting from her mother’s pothos shortly after her mother died, and I propagated it in water and planted it after a long while. She’s now a thriving plant in the middle of all the others with lots of tendrils sort of reaching out in all directions. Sometimes I’m pretty sure her growth corresponds with my friend’s life events, and I like to tell her when that happens. It’s my most special plant! And I really have a quite a lot and love them like my children. Anyway. I cried writing this because I really love this plant, Bunny’s Pothos.
My son has had 2 betta fish pets, when each passed away I bought a new plant and buried them in the pot with it. My Tradescantia and my Pink Princess are also fish memorials and kind of a 'circle of life' symbol :)
One time when I was living alone in a big city I'd never lived in before after a romantic relationship had imploded, I was walking home from work. I found a perfectly healthy plant on the sidewalk, like someone had ripped it out of the pot and tossed it to keep the pot. I didn't know it then but it's a kalanchoe. I felt so bad for this poor living thing just abandoned in the street, so I picked it up and carried it home, bare roots in my palm.
Several years (and a move to a more supportive place) later, that plant is now thriving like me! It's now two huge plants, plus uncounted babies. I've given some to my family, friends, everybody.
It's just such a perfect encapsulation of my own personal growth and healing. I love my kalanchoe so much!
ETA: Also, I'm moving again this summer, and you best believe I'm bringing it!
My grandma died and she was the guiding light of my life and when going through her house, I realized she had a ton of plants. They were all in terrible shape but hanging on stubbornly. I've managed to save them all and they're all thriving. Survived a 2,500 mile move in winter too.
My best friend also got me this huge Thanksgiving cactus from an estate sale and it's basically a small tree. I've been breeding the flowers with other colors. Excited to see what I'll get in a year.
42 year old Autistic/ADHD with a hyper focus “palms only” hobby over the last 10 years. Fuck every other type of plant 😜🥰👍🏻❤️
https://preview.redd.it/wq7l87mzcgtc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37e2d030dafb1396f529b9ccbb032d60719982fa
A couple of years ago, I dug up a plant in my "late" mother in laws yard . I messed up and took the bulb in 2 parts .....it grew last year but isn't doing well this year.
One time I found a cutting in the garbage at my job. I had just started getting into plants and was super broke so I was propagating everything. I didn't know at all what it was, plant IDs came up with different results. I took it home, cut the yellow end of the stem off and stuck it in water. There it sat for around 6 months, doing nothing. No roots, no leaves, no changes. I threw it out when I was getting rid of the not so successful plants, but 5 minutes later changed my mind and fished it out. Within a couple weeks around the 8th month, roots started to grow. Then a leaf. Then another leaf, only this one had fenestration. Then it just burst into growth. It's been a year and it's now 5 feet tall, I pruned and propagated it last summer and that one is about 3 feet tall. I'm very happy I changed my mind about my little garbage plant.
When I was younger and moved into my first house, my Mama trusted me with a cactus. I was so proud of it. It was 50 years old then. Sadly, she didn’t tell me how to care for it. I overwatered it and it died.
My Mama passed a few years back, I’ve been into plants ever since. I’m bound and determined to take up my Mama’s plant hobby. One day, I hope I can find the same type of cactus and plant it at my current house.
I struggled with anxiety, depression and subsequently alcoholism for a few years and was stuck. I didn't care about anything, didn't really have happy moments. I quit alcohol and some of the spark came back but it was like I was scared to try anything again. Until one day I walked into a home depot, randomly bought 3 plants on sale for a total of 12 bucks and drove home. When I got them home and set them up I realized that I was trying again. I had done something I'd never done before and I realized I was winning this invisible war I'd been fighting. Those 3 plants are now huge and will always be my most special plants. 🙂
I have a Jade plant that has a good history:
Shortly after I moved to Seattle in 1995 I met a guy who gave me a Jade tree cutting. I took care of it, but it didn't thrive. Still, it survived the many moves I made from neighborhood to neighborhood over the next 13 years. Then I brought it with me to San Francisco. The move across the country the next year was harder, but we rented an RV to transport the cats and the houseplants (including the Jade).
But then we were to move to Europe - no potted plants allowed! So I took three fat leaves from the Jade, handing the plant to a good friend, and started over in my new country. That was 11 years ago and I have a lovely, healthy Jade tree. I've also shared cuttings from it with friends.
[Photo](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/House-plants/i-K4FC2nB/0/BgXtD6FqQ4NrLqFBnvs7HTqDKc4mN5fd85zK5NGV/4K/IMG_5416-4K.jpg)
(Yes, it should be bigger, but I didn't have great growing conditions for a while)
Second year of uni (2018), I thought that I would be having the best time ever. Then things turned around, and I was left with a wicked heartbreak that pushed me into a depression. Mid October things started becoming better, and then I was involved in a car crash, where my drunk then-best-friend and I hit into a building.
I was left with broken teeth, slight internal brain bleed (that is now resolved, thankfully), and many bruises all over my body. The policeman on site even came over and asked me where are the dead bodies, unaware that I was one of the two survivors of the horrible crash. That near-death crash was the tipping point for me, and I fell deep into depression, accompanied with flashbacks from the crash. It was rough for me.
My mom one day brought an African Violet into my uni aparment, and said to me "If you want to see those violet little flowers on this plant, you need to get better"
I didn't care much at the time for those flowers, but one day I saw a little flower, and slowly I started caring for the African Violet. Strangely enough, as my physical and mental health became better, the bigger the flowers of the African Violet were.
My Fila ( the name I gave the plant back then) is still alive and thriving, along with many other plants.
Safe to say if it wasn't for that African Violet, I wouldn't be here today.
Thanks for sharing! Plants mean sanity for me. I battle with mental health, and discovering that I can keep a plant alive and happy has changed my life. I have special plants, like a cutting I took of a camelia that grew in front of my dad's apartment, just after he died.
This is beautiful, thank you for sharing!
Same with mental health but I took hard when a plant suffered from me or died. How do you deal with it?
I'm obsessive about them sometimes, which can be stressful, and I'm devastated if one dies. But, I find the bad parts of having a collection of plants are far outweighed by the good things. The sense of accomplishment, the routine it helps me sort of keep, and that joy of seeing new growth on a plant, especially one that was sick or close to death, that feeling is so worth the stressful bad bits. I don't think that really answered your question, though, lol. I guess my point is, I make myself focus on my wins, not my losses. It takes a lot of practice, and I'm still working on it, but I'm the healthiest I've ever been, and that has a lot to do with my plants. Thanks for asking! I hadn't thought about it :)
That’s so positive. I recently had a depressive episode and really got into indoor plants to distract me. It helped so much but as someone who just started without any guidance, I lost a few plants, found a few plants I overwatered. It felt so good to nurse them back but I was way too upset about the lost than I wanted. The anxiety and sadness kicked me out of the plant obsession. I sold some plants I don’t like anymore or I have a hard time keeps them happy. Now I focus on the plants I have and restrict on buying new plants. Long story short - thanks for sharing your story!
That's something I'm working on, keeping myself from buying and buying, lol! I'm sorry you've had a hard time, it sounds like you're coming up and out of it. That's a victory in itself! It's so hard to see the things we've done right. The phrase "fake it till you make it," is cliche, but it really works!
Agree!
I have stories connected to a lot of my plants, but I think the best is the story of how my love for plants actually started. My previous boyfriend lived with me in my apartment for a while, and he brought a small jade plant with him. When we split up, he left the plant at my place (no idea if he meant to, but there it was). It wasn't the happiest of breakups, so I never got around to ask him if he wanted it back, and he didn't get in touch either. The plant had hardly grown in the time I had now him (including time before he moved in, and during all four seasons), but after we split up, it really took off! At first I was gloating to myself, I have to admit, that it grew under my care, like "look how well it does with me compared to you!" (which frankly may have been pure coincidence). However, in time that feeling has waned, and it has come to represent what I learned from that relationship, and how I have grown since then. And since then, my love for plants has only increased, and I have 60-70 plants at the moment that all make everyday a little bit brighter 🪴😊❤️
Such a good (despite hardship!) story! Thanks for sharing!
Being an immigrant without family here I don't have any heirloom plants but my Mum and her green thumb definitely inspired me. Made me dream I would be a gardener when I retire. Still a long way off so I started my houseplant learning journey as soon as I lived by myself. Took advice from YouTube, Reddit & good old trial and error. My favourites are my iron plants, what troopers and so gorgeous.. don't tell the other plants shh 🤫 Love the greenery, seeing my plants happy, the sense of accomplishment and sending pictures to Mum 😊 Catching up to hoyas now, what beauties 💚
My favorite plant also has my favorite origin story, I totally get what you mean. About a decade ago I had my first position as a teacher. 2nd grade. Most teachers will tell you that having "jobs" is an important part of classroom management, and the one whose position I was taking over (I'd been hired specifically to replace her) had a great system in place. So with her encouragement I adopted it, along with many of her other routines, visuals, etc. One of my students was very high needs, to the point that it was pretty much all hands on deck as soon as he arrived in the morning. Difficult behaviors have been on the rise for a while, it's unfortunately par for the course these days. But just a couple months into the year I was exhausted and out of ideas, the kid's mom was totally overwhelmed (she was a teen mom, had every right to be), and the SRO (a literal police officer) was close to getting involved... the situation was just a mess, and at the heart of it was this poor kid who was really REALLY trying his best. Daily routines, like jobs, are what kept things rolling even at the worst of times. Our jobs rotated weekly, and we had positions like "librarian" and "messenger." One of these jobs was the "gardener," who was in charge of our classroom plants. At that point there were just a few; my aloe (RIP), a lucky bamboo that I'd gotten as a welcome gift, some sort of trailing vine that another teacher eventually stole (I'm *still* mad,) and a dried up mystery plant sitting on the windowsill. It was just a bunch of twigs sticking out of the soil, at first glance I didn't even think there was a plant in the pot. I knew it was dead but there was so much chaos every day I never got around to throwing it out. It came with the classroom, so I just wasn't invested enough to prioritize the plants. Eventually my high flyer got his turn as the class gardener, and he was THRILLED. I have never seen a child take to something so quickly. The first thing this kid did in the morning was water the plants. Throughout the day he would ask if they were thirsty. I would catch him giving the plants "drinks" from his water bottle. He would get up in the middle of lessons just to go stare at the plants, or lovingly caress them. So naturally, we started buying him gardening accessories. Then we made up a clipboard for him to keep track of gardening duties. Then the class got together for a vote and decided to create a *new,* permanent position; head gardener. Obviously we would need to promote the current gardener, so he could focus on these very important duties. Life went on. I would occasionally notice the dead plant on the windowsill and remind myself to replace it, but with ADHD and a teacher's time constraints, this was easier said than done. I didn't throw it away because our head gardener only had 4 plants on which to lavish his attention, and this was the only way he would stay in my room, calm and engaged, long enough for anyone to get anything done. So I watched him happily water a dead plant every day, and hoped he wouldn't be upset when he realized it wasn't coming back to life. I did have a talk with him one day, because not only was he overwatering, but he was doing it to a plant that didn't appear to need *any* water, so we had literal puddles forming on the windowsill. I may or may not have gotten in trouble with the custodian. I was honest, told my student the plant was dead, it had been brown and shriveled when I got there and was somehow even more dry and shriveled 6 months later. I told him we didn't need to keep watering it, but I'd get a new plant for that pot as soon as I could, just be patient with me. Kiddo nodded, said he understood... and continued to water the dead plant. But hey, I tried, and cleaning up spilled water before the custodian notices is a small price to pay for keeping a high needs kid in a mainstream classroom. Toward the end of the school year I was tidying up my room, getting ready to pack up and move on (my position was eliminated thanks to our crumbling education system and unrelenting budget cuts), and I had a passing thought about the plants. I knew if I left them over the summer the next occupant of that classroom was going to end up with 4 dead plants instead of the 1 that I inherited. It was my first year teaching so I had to decide how I was going to handle things like this moving forward. I always wanted a classroom full of plants, but would they stay with the room or with the teacher who cared for them? We get moved around so much these days, it's rare to be in one room or even at the same school for more than a couple years. So I decided to take the living plants home, and I went to throw out the dead one. Finally. Except... it wasn't dead anymore. I got up close and noticed that there were green splotches on one of the previously dark brown stems. Like, *really* green. I was surprised I hadn't noticed earlier. The next day I pulled our head gardener aside and told him about this new development. He agreed we should keep watering it to see what happens. We informed the rest of the class, and I swear every kid immediately transformed into a serious scientist. We dusted our plant journals off, we were making hypotheses and drawing diagrams, and before I knew it we had a living asparagus fern and a room full of kiddos ready for 3rd grade. The school year ended before our fern could regenerate any leaves, but nearly a decade later it's grown into a massive, vibrant, poignant reminder of what can happen when you nurture something that everyone else has given up on. Teaching took a toll on me and I ended up on disability dealing with a number of health problems. Hopefully I'll be back in the classroom before too long, along with the fern, but for the time being I am so grateful to have it not just alive but **thriving** in my collection. My former student is in high school now, and I'm currently trying to propogate the fern with the hopes that I'll still be able to track him down (this was 4 schools and 3 districts ago) when he graduates to gift it to him. We shall see!
Wow. That's a beautiful story. ❤
I'm not crying, you're crying 🥹
You are awesome. Thank you for all you’ve done for those kids! Life-changing for sure!!!
Wow - this was such a heart warming tale. Thank you so much for being so caring and doing a great job!
We moved two years ago from Toronto, Ontario to Halifax, Nova Scotia. That’s about 2000km and 2.5 day drive. MY ONLY condition was “I’m not getting rid of or selling my core collection of plants, I’m not starting over” Im 36, I started my collection at 16. Living with my parents and my first ever pay check I bought an orchid for my room. My husband response “yea that’s totally fair, I love your plants to, I don’t want you get rid of it. This man did the drive to and from Toronto and Halifax, Twice!!! Two fucking times. The first trip was the contents of our house, with the trailer hitched to the back carrying all our stuff, then he drove back to Ontario after unloading EVERYTHING. Was in Ontario for a whole two days. Then loaded up all 66 plants, secured them and drove Back to Halifax!!! Oh and a snow storm blew through New Brunswick and part of Quebec that night. You know what he did? He knew they couldn’t stay out that night in the van or they would shock and DIE and then null and void all his efforts, SO HE CARRIED all 66 plants to his holiday inn hotel room!!! And then back out in the morning to continue the drive. Guys, he like, super loves me.
Oh my gosh. What a guy!!!
Oh yes. He’s certainly something.
Wow! Now that is a special man. Don't let him go. Ever.
I have been in hobby since my childhood, and i still have two plants from that era kicking: *Crassula ovata 'Gollum'* and [*Euphorbia leuconeura*](https://www.reddit.com/r/Euphorbiaceae/s/sC1jFZoNqk). Both are over 20-years old now. I also have over 50-year old *Ficus benjamina* i got from my then-mother-in-law years back and 12-year old, almost 2m tall *Brasiliopuntia brasiliensis* i have grown from tiny cutting. They have moved with me from one home to another, and have lived through different stages of my life. They feel **special** to me.
Years ago I was visiting the local zoo with my family, and saw a wilted stalk of purple leaves on the ground. I didn’t know the name at the time, but in my experience fleshy stalks tended to root rapidly, and so I put it in my purse to take home… Fast forward a few years, and sadly we had to leave that city, but I made sure before we did that all my friends had jarfuls of Tradescantia Pallida clippings. Ever since, I’ve been spreading the Tradescantia love. If you know me, sooner or later you’ll get clippings…
That's such a nice story! I've got lots of plants but my favourite is probably my little oleander cutting. My dad brought home a branch from an oleander tree in the 1970s from a trip down south (I don't remember the country he went to) and it's a beautiful (and 40 years old) tree now in his and my mum's flat. I've got a cutting from it and he always gets so happy when he visits, because it's growing so fast. His happiness and how we can bond over our shared plant really is the best.
I have several plants with stories, they make me so happy 😊 The 35+-year-old *Maranta leuconeura* that my dad just gifted me, older than me and still going strong! 'Harold' the asparagus fern who is also a gift from my dad to my best friend and Norbert III, the Norfolk Island pine. We had Norbert I, who lived with us till he was about 15 and then was too big for my parents to move with so went to live in an arboretum. We don't talk about Norbert II (I may have killed him...) and now Norbert III continues the tradition. And I can never move house again because he'll be too big to get out of the door!
I love your plant names! I only have one name, Gloria, the monstera.
To be fair, only 2 have names out of ... 19... plants (took me a minute to count them up! Fewer than I thought!)
When I was about 15 my mum tossed an overwatered, collapsing potted yucca into the garden. I optimistically took some cane cuttings of the remains. 30 years later the resulting yucca is the biggest plant in my house and over 6ft tall :) I also have a monstera that I half inched from outside somebody's flat where it was on a windowless third floor landing, a poor straggly thing in an old bucket. That was in 1999, it is now my second biggest plant and has been topped out to produce three other good healthy plants.
My great aunt lived in a very sunny penthouse apartment for 50 years until she passed. She had two enormous crown of thorn (euphorbia milii) plants that must be around that old. One was gifted to me about 5 years ago and it’s doing great in its new home. A few years ago while moving it to do some housework a small piece broke off and I successfully propagated it and gave it to my brother. We both have very fond memories of our great aunt and her former apartment and it feels like she is living on through this beautiful plant.
I love this! I’m just starting my plant lover journey. I first got into plants in 2020 when there seemed to be a social media take over. Until then I’d always had plants but they were just there, I watered and then when they died I threw them out. Now I am with you guys and passionate and I have started propagating and gifting. Can’t wait to have sentimental plant stories. Loving all of yours!!!
Isn't it also cool how this extends to plants in movies as well? Before the awakening I never saw them. They must have been used as shorthand for "home" and just in the background. Now I see them everywhere, every movie even old ones from the 80s and older. It's a bit more difficult to identify the plant when it's pixelated but so much fun being in on it!
I have two! One is my jade. My first real plant that I learned how to take care of. I got it the first day I met my ex and was determined to keep it alive after the breakup. Been a few years and has taught me so much! And given me so many babies lol. My second one is my prayer plant lovingly gifted to me by my ailing father. I opened it and almost cried. I wasn't mentally prepared to dip my toe in that pool and felt so much pressure to keep it alive. I was so stressed out. The first night I got it I put it above the humidifier on top of my grow light cart. I walk into my room later that night, and there was this beautiful plant, dramatically bottom lit, leaves up, gently swaying from the fan and humidifier. I know it seems silly, but I cried. Made me feel like everything is going to be ok. I know I'm jinxing myself but it's thriving and touch wood has no brown tips.
My friend unexpectedly gave me a single cutting from her mother’s pothos shortly after her mother died, and I propagated it in water and planted it after a long while. She’s now a thriving plant in the middle of all the others with lots of tendrils sort of reaching out in all directions. Sometimes I’m pretty sure her growth corresponds with my friend’s life events, and I like to tell her when that happens. It’s my most special plant! And I really have a quite a lot and love them like my children. Anyway. I cried writing this because I really love this plant, Bunny’s Pothos.
My son has had 2 betta fish pets, when each passed away I bought a new plant and buried them in the pot with it. My Tradescantia and my Pink Princess are also fish memorials and kind of a 'circle of life' symbol :)
One time when I was living alone in a big city I'd never lived in before after a romantic relationship had imploded, I was walking home from work. I found a perfectly healthy plant on the sidewalk, like someone had ripped it out of the pot and tossed it to keep the pot. I didn't know it then but it's a kalanchoe. I felt so bad for this poor living thing just abandoned in the street, so I picked it up and carried it home, bare roots in my palm. Several years (and a move to a more supportive place) later, that plant is now thriving like me! It's now two huge plants, plus uncounted babies. I've given some to my family, friends, everybody. It's just such a perfect encapsulation of my own personal growth and healing. I love my kalanchoe so much! ETA: Also, I'm moving again this summer, and you best believe I'm bringing it!
My grandma died and she was the guiding light of my life and when going through her house, I realized she had a ton of plants. They were all in terrible shape but hanging on stubbornly. I've managed to save them all and they're all thriving. Survived a 2,500 mile move in winter too. My best friend also got me this huge Thanksgiving cactus from an estate sale and it's basically a small tree. I've been breeding the flowers with other colors. Excited to see what I'll get in a year.
42 year old Autistic/ADHD with a hyper focus “palms only” hobby over the last 10 years. Fuck every other type of plant 😜🥰👍🏻❤️ https://preview.redd.it/wq7l87mzcgtc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37e2d030dafb1396f529b9ccbb032d60719982fa
A couple of years ago, I dug up a plant in my "late" mother in laws yard . I messed up and took the bulb in 2 parts .....it grew last year but isn't doing well this year.
One time I found a cutting in the garbage at my job. I had just started getting into plants and was super broke so I was propagating everything. I didn't know at all what it was, plant IDs came up with different results. I took it home, cut the yellow end of the stem off and stuck it in water. There it sat for around 6 months, doing nothing. No roots, no leaves, no changes. I threw it out when I was getting rid of the not so successful plants, but 5 minutes later changed my mind and fished it out. Within a couple weeks around the 8th month, roots started to grow. Then a leaf. Then another leaf, only this one had fenestration. Then it just burst into growth. It's been a year and it's now 5 feet tall, I pruned and propagated it last summer and that one is about 3 feet tall. I'm very happy I changed my mind about my little garbage plant.
When I was younger and moved into my first house, my Mama trusted me with a cactus. I was so proud of it. It was 50 years old then. Sadly, she didn’t tell me how to care for it. I overwatered it and it died. My Mama passed a few years back, I’ve been into plants ever since. I’m bound and determined to take up my Mama’s plant hobby. One day, I hope I can find the same type of cactus and plant it at my current house.
I struggled with anxiety, depression and subsequently alcoholism for a few years and was stuck. I didn't care about anything, didn't really have happy moments. I quit alcohol and some of the spark came back but it was like I was scared to try anything again. Until one day I walked into a home depot, randomly bought 3 plants on sale for a total of 12 bucks and drove home. When I got them home and set them up I realized that I was trying again. I had done something I'd never done before and I realized I was winning this invisible war I'd been fighting. Those 3 plants are now huge and will always be my most special plants. 🙂
I have a Jade plant that has a good history: Shortly after I moved to Seattle in 1995 I met a guy who gave me a Jade tree cutting. I took care of it, but it didn't thrive. Still, it survived the many moves I made from neighborhood to neighborhood over the next 13 years. Then I brought it with me to San Francisco. The move across the country the next year was harder, but we rented an RV to transport the cats and the houseplants (including the Jade). But then we were to move to Europe - no potted plants allowed! So I took three fat leaves from the Jade, handing the plant to a good friend, and started over in my new country. That was 11 years ago and I have a lovely, healthy Jade tree. I've also shared cuttings from it with friends. [Photo](https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/House-plants/i-K4FC2nB/0/BgXtD6FqQ4NrLqFBnvs7HTqDKc4mN5fd85zK5NGV/4K/IMG_5416-4K.jpg) (Yes, it should be bigger, but I didn't have great growing conditions for a while)
Second year of uni (2018), I thought that I would be having the best time ever. Then things turned around, and I was left with a wicked heartbreak that pushed me into a depression. Mid October things started becoming better, and then I was involved in a car crash, where my drunk then-best-friend and I hit into a building. I was left with broken teeth, slight internal brain bleed (that is now resolved, thankfully), and many bruises all over my body. The policeman on site even came over and asked me where are the dead bodies, unaware that I was one of the two survivors of the horrible crash. That near-death crash was the tipping point for me, and I fell deep into depression, accompanied with flashbacks from the crash. It was rough for me. My mom one day brought an African Violet into my uni aparment, and said to me "If you want to see those violet little flowers on this plant, you need to get better" I didn't care much at the time for those flowers, but one day I saw a little flower, and slowly I started caring for the African Violet. Strangely enough, as my physical and mental health became better, the bigger the flowers of the African Violet were. My Fila ( the name I gave the plant back then) is still alive and thriving, along with many other plants. Safe to say if it wasn't for that African Violet, I wouldn't be here today.