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IMG_2812BLOG: I don’t have a green thumb.  In fact, I have no real plants in my house except one.  (Will get to that in a sec).  I also can kill plants outside my front door because if they need to be hand watered, there’s a chance of bees and sorry.  Not happening.  Phobic.  But when my dad passed away, my plotmonkey pals, Janelle Denison, Julie Leto and Leslie Kelly sent me this plant.  Note, my dad passed a year and a half ago.  Plant is still here.  Also note, plant has outgrown its holder – I had to have it replanted in something bigger because … GASP … it was thriving!  It’s survived vacations where I come home and it’s wilted and bone dry, it’s survived being drowned instead of merely watered.  Clearly … it’s a survivor.  I like to think it’s because my friends sent it to me at such a sad time.  It reminds me of them.  And dad.  

And the other day, I didn’t like the brown tips on the end of the leaves, so I snipped them at the bottom of the stems and cut off all the brown tipped leaves.  I pruned it back a bit, so it could look pretty and grow.  Which reminds me, I need to buy it a new holder that it fits inside of.  Don’t you think?  But the old smaller one is so pretty …

Green thumb or no green thumb, which way do you roll?

46 thoughts on “Friends”

  1. I was ‘plant killer’ when I was younger. But then I discovered orchids. I know I know, you’d think I’d start with something less demanding. But the fact is, I fell in love with this plants. I even bought a few on discount in my local supermarket – they were practically giving them away because the plants were on their death bed. And I’ve turned their faith around. Now my orchids bloom year round. I even got to replant few of them because they got baby orchids. So now I’m an Orchid Mama 🙂 I believe it’s only the matter of finding the right plant for you.

  2. I usually have a black thumb. I have been able to keep 1 plant alive for almost 15 years tho. It has survived lack of water and almost getting burned up in the sun and still lives (left it on the balcony in the 100* sun one day and it almost burnt to a crisp). I water it once a week and leave it alone. It needs to be replanted, but I’m afraid I’ll kill it if I mess with the current planter.

  3. I am horrible with plants. I kill eveverything! We have no plants in the house. I had an herb garden right off the front porch so I could use them when I cooked…I forgot about them. I didn’t water them and they died.

  4. Plant killer. I’m an elementary school secretary and I get plants as gifts for most gift giving holidays. It’s a joke around the office that Laurie got something new to kill!

  5. I have a green thumb. Don’t know where it came from.
    You know you can split that peace lily into about 4 new plants instead up upsizing the pots. You can give them as gifts to other people or just spread them around the house in a lot of pretty pots.
    As my husband says they make new oxygen inside the house.

  6. This is funny because I have a purple thumb. I normally kill all things that grow. My mom and mother-in-law have rescued plants from my home on many occasions. The plant you have that will not die is, I believe, called a piece lilly. It gets white flowers every once in a while. I got one 17 years ago for a housewarming present and it still lives. I have transplanted it many times. Warning. If you transplant it, it will get bigger and bigger. If you want to keep it at the size it is now, you could change the container it’s in, but keep to the same size. Mine is now huge and I finally quit buying larger planters because I don’t want it getting any bigger. Personally, if my hubby wouldn’t get mad, I would give it to someone else, but he likes the plant. 🙂

  7. You better get a real big pot Carly! In another year that plant will double. I had a lovely Peace Lily like you have it grew until i had to put it on a platform on wheels and weighed about 50 lbs!. One day a freak Southern Thunderstorm popped up while I was out and destroyed it. I was heartbroken as it was also given to me from a friend years before!. So think BIG and that way you won’t have to keep replanting 🙂 Good Luck!

  8. I used to have plants & did OK with them. I had them on a stand, but my daughter knocked them over when she was little & they all bit the dust. Never replaced them. Glad yours is doing so well, especially with the sentimental value they have. 🙂

  9. We have ferns, Christmas cacti, poinsetta, and a peace lily. The ferns started out as one but we transplanted it. It was the original one that my mother-in-law gave her mother about 72 years ago. She had a green thumb. We got the peace lily in January from church. It was almost dead because no one had watered it. It looks great now. Two of the three Christmas cacti are blooming. I am going to rename since it doesn’t seem to bloom at Christmas time, just blooms whenever it wants to bloom.

  10. Awwww I love that your plant has such meaning and that it’s thriving.
    I’m pretty lucky – I think I have a green thumb 🙂 both my parents do and I grew up with massive gardens. In fact the other night I said my green thumb could be one of my contributions to a zombie apocalypse survival team ;P

  11. I could kill a Cactus. 😉 My husband laughs but it is silk plants for this girl and hopefully I put my books down to dust them.

  12. At one point, early in my marriage, I belonged to a “plant of the month” club and was successful in keeping them healthy. However, one of my cats liked to eat them and I ended up getting rid of them because after one of his forays, they looked pitiful!

  13. So not a green thumb. When I was younger, I used to think I had a green thumb and I proceded as though I did. But it took me years to realize, I did not. Almost everything died. Rarely did something survive. I either over water or underwater everthing. I trim to much or not enough. Either way, both of my parents are terrific green thumb people and my mom has several times tried giving me aloe plants. They are amazing useful plants. She says you cant kill them. But I do, every dang time. And every time I burn a finger on a hot pan, I curse myself for not being able to keep a poor, easy going thing like an aloe plant alive. Grrr…..
    But I can take a decent picture and I can make a quilt and I can crochet you a stocking hat. Does that make up for it?? LOL

  14. Nope, no green thumb here either plus I have four cats, so absolutely no plants in my house because one of them would eat them lol.

    plant person, I am not.

  15. If you don’t want to up-pot it, you can also root-prune it. Take it out of the pot, shake off the dirt, and cut about 1/3 of the length off the biggest, fattest roots. That will cause the roots to put out little side roots. Then give it new dirt ( my former boss would kill me for not using the word ‘soil’. Screw him). Personally, I’d leave it alone if it’s happy. Don’t fix what’s not broken. And yours is really pretty.

  17. I’m sporatic with plants. Some I kill instantly, some I keep around for a while. Love, love, love Orchids, and I am good with them. Outside, if mother nature doesn’t water them, they are destined to die.

    That wee decorative pot under your plant would make a great pencil cup.

    • Now I know, that the very first plant I ever bought for mylesf, like 100 years ago, was a Monstera. That brought back lots of memories. It’s lovely, and so is your tree. Maybe you can keep it for next Christmas. It would be fun to see how long it would last!?Lilli

  18. I have absolutely no green thumb. I have no real or fake plants in my apartment either. Fake ones always get too dusty and gross and real ones require me to take care of them, which I’m bad at, but I can take care of my dog without even really thinking about it…weird?

  19. It’s kind of a joke that I can kill artificial plants — the operative words being “kind of”. I am just horrible with plants. My husband has the green thumb and boy, can he make ’em grow! We have this ivy-type plant that I swear is trying to take over the house. It is growing around the living room wall toward the bedroom door. I laughingly tell hubby that one of these days we won’t be able to get out of the bedroom… (I have to admit it terrorizes me though…)

  20. plant killer. give it to me and you are guaranteed that I will find a way to kill it. I have no plants at all. anything I get I end up giving to my mother. she’s the one with the green thumb.

  21. Total black thumb. That’s so cool that the plotmonkeys’ plant is thriving. It must be because of the love associated with it.

  22. I never thought I had a green thumb, until my landlady started giving me orchids… and low and behold, I have green thumbs… I can make them grown where others I know who have green thumbs can’t make them grow.. Makes me feel so good.. Keep up the good work Carly. :yourock:

  23. Since my dads death 8 years ago, I have had several plants that I have tended, with the help of my husband who really has the true green thumb in the family. When my brother was killed 4 years ago, our plant numbers doubled… and, fortunately, they are all still thriving. I think you should use the holder that is too small as a desk pen holder or a change/key holder. Good luck with your plant!

  26. I can have a green thumb. One time I wanted to get rid of a spider plant but didn’t want to throw it away or be cruel. I decided to take it out of its pot, put it on a plated and let it sit. If it died, an illogical mind reasoned, it wouldn’t be my fault. It thrived. I couldn’t be a killer so I put it in a pot and found it a good home. I have a Christmas Cactus that has been moved and shocked and do you know every year when it blooms I consider it a miracle. I believe God gives me this sign of beauty.
    Sorry didn’t mean to babble.

  29. I’m usually very lucky when it comes to plants. I have had a few that die no matter what I do. I love working in the yard, spent some time yesterday weeding. Pulling weeds is very relaxing.

  30. Green thumb, but them most of my family does. This would include my mom, brothers & sisters. And, that’s how we roll.

    Take your pretty container that your plant originally came in and use it for ink pens or such, that way you still get to enjoy it.

    G

  31. I’m like you. I tend to forget about them except for maybe once a month. I actually have a plant from college (spider plant) that one of my roommates gave me. It barely gets anything, yet it’s still around.

    I also have a plant from when my dad passed away (year 2000). Same thing…neglected but it’s still hanging on.

    I have a total of 6 plants and they were all given to me.

  32. Carly, I have the same plant from my dad’s funeral nine years ago. It lived at my sister’s for three years when I lived in Africa and now I have it back. It was blooming and beautiful when we went to Paris last June. But I forgot to water it before we left. All the leaves were crispy and I thought it was a goner. I couldn’t throw it out and most of all couldn’t tell my twin (who kills silk flowers). I watered it and waited … and then the green showed up! Now it’s recovering and thriving so you should be able to have at least this plant thriving too!

  33. My family makes fun of me because most living plants that enter our home do not survive except the one that was sent to me after my father passed away 3 years ago. I’m not sure what keeps it going, but it sure is happy and it too is growing out of it’s planter and I’m too afraid to replant it for fear that I will kill it in the process.

  34. You are too funny. I can grow a plant. You are like my sister, there is a plant on the front porch and it will die (even though she walks by it every day). I have no plants at the moment because of the cat. Bailey loves to chew on the leaves, and the plants do not like it. The last one I had, my son was in charged when I went away for a week and he killed it. 😕

  35. like you, i kill plants but i have a better comment. i was asked to water plants for a neighbor. unfortunately, she didn’t tell me her ficus tree was FAKE-yup-watered an artificial tree and all that water went onto her hardwood, immaculate floors. never ran down the street so fast laughing and crying at the same time. so no more plant care for me

  36. I was raised by a black thumb and inherieted it! BUT I have an amaryllis flower that I have grown quite well and my pointsettas are still alive from December so maybe there is hope for me yet!

  37. You are not alone on killing plants. I have killed a Venus Flytrap before. I do not have a green thumb at all. I have discovered a plant called a Wandering Jew that dies in the winter time and comes back to life in the spring. That is the only plant I can keep alive.

  38. Carly,
    I think you have the makings of getting a green thumb now. I killed my Peace Lilly after two years. However, I am so much better now with plant’s. Most people can’t keep Poinsettia’s alive. However, I can and do. I also got a tree that my company through out. I brought home and put it in a bigger planter and now it’s growing six new baby plants. I was at my company for 15 years and not once did this tree reproduce and now it’s having babies.

    In the summer you should see my Roses, Iris’s. It took my Iris’s 7 years before they bloomed but they did last year and when I got them they were from a Purple Iris plant. However, my were yellow.
    I think this is because of the soil here. We have Red Clay. So what I did with my Roses is dug the hole and filled them with black dirt and than planted. They turned out so beautiful.

  39. I have one green thumb, one black thumb I’ve decided. Some of my plants are absolutely thriving (spider plant I can’t kill) and some, unfortunately an orchid, are not doing so hot. I try, but I also forget to water and it seems only my most prosperous plants are the most forgiving. My spider plant had so many babies last year that I rooted them in paper cups and my GRANDsons sold them at their FFA garage sale for $1 each. The kids loved them (moms probly hate me right now) but my GRANDS made about $40 just off that one spider plant. I tried to kill it by putting it outside last summer and fall but it thrived so it came back inside. But it didn’t have as many babies this year (thank goodness!) A former co-worker gave me her grandmother’s Christmas cactus when she left the country but it won’t stay healthy. I think it’s tired of the pot it’s in so this summer it might be repotted. Speaking of repotted, think I’ll go there right now!

  40. I too have 2 black thumbs because 99% of the time I manage to kill off most plants I owned. My husband got transferred a lot for his job and he used to tell me it was time for another transfer when all the houseplants were on their last legs. Moving companies won’t move plants so I would have a legitimate excuse to throw them out! The odd thing is that I was given some houseplants when my MIL died and they thrived despite my care.

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