LJ Idol Season 5 Week 5 - Poor Little Rose Beaten by the Rain
o/` "And I, I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
Now I'm crooked on the outside, and the inside's broke" o/`
----- "I Taught Myself How to Grow" performed by Ryan Adams
It had taken over the carpet...and it had tentacles.
At least, that's how it appeared when I spotted the green and white...thing... growing in the middle of my living room floor as though it belonged there.
I'd always wanted a home full of green and growing things --- culinary herbs overspilling their pots on the kitchen window sill, philodendrons twining their way across the cabinet tops, spider plants and ivy spilling from the baskets they shared with geraniums and petunias, cacti and succulents thriving in their little terrariums on desks or end tables. Unfortunately, Florida's peculiar seasons threw a wrench in that little dream and my thumb went from green to black.
Their little corpses littered the house, sad drooping things dying of excess humidity or perishing from some sort of weird mildew. What the humidity didn't kill, the cats eagerly attacked. "Succulent", I found, is quite the right word. The cats loved these kinds of plants and would merrily chew through the aloe and jade as if it were the very best grade of catnip. In the course of five years, I had bought at least three jade plants of various sizes and maturity. They had all been consumed like some designer drug by my crazy feline friends.
The last jade plant had bitten the dust a few weeks ago; I'd swept up its mutilated stems and leaves, hauled it to the compost heap, and thought no more about it. I suppose in the back of my mind, I had the idea that eventually I would slink back to the nursery, explain that I'd killed yet another jade plant, and buy a replacement. It turned out I didn't need to do so.
Saturday mornings we clean. Furniture gets dusted, carpets get vacuumed, and the various oddments of living which have accumulated during the week get returned to their proper places. Since we live out in the country, it's not unusual for someone to track in plant material. We do, after all, have to walk through a swampy woodland to get to the front door. I spotted that little bit of green and attempted to pluck it out of the carpet.
It didn't come up. When I pulled at it, I got....that.
Eventually, it dawned on me that the 'tentacles' were small root tendrils and that this was a small piece of the ill fated jade plant. I took a moment to marvel at the tenacity of this little plant which had refused to die. Oh, I knew that cacti and succulents can grow in the most hostile of environments but...that's my carpet in my living room! Asked what we should do with it, my husband yanked it up out of the carpet and marched off with it. Bewildered, I followed him to our temple room.
In the north sector we keep a terra cotta dish of consecrated earth. It came from under the house when the foundation was laid and later from the garden. Its only adornments were small amethyst and citrine points. He tossed it into the dish with the roots angled down toward the soil and we promptly forgot about it.
That was three years ago. Occasionally, I remember to look in the dish and see if the plant is still there. It always is, and recently it put forth a small tendril of stalks with delicate leaves. Once in a great while I remember to spritz some water over the soil. Otherwise, we continue ignoring it. This little plant obviously didn't need our help. It thrives on neglect.
This entry has been written for season five of therealljidol. If you liked it, please consider voting for me when the polls go up. I'll post a link and a reminder later.
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
Now I'm crooked on the outside, and the inside's broke" o/`
----- "I Taught Myself How to Grow" performed by Ryan Adams
It had taken over the carpet...and it had tentacles.
At least, that's how it appeared when I spotted the green and white...thing... growing in the middle of my living room floor as though it belonged there.
I'd always wanted a home full of green and growing things --- culinary herbs overspilling their pots on the kitchen window sill, philodendrons twining their way across the cabinet tops, spider plants and ivy spilling from the baskets they shared with geraniums and petunias, cacti and succulents thriving in their little terrariums on desks or end tables. Unfortunately, Florida's peculiar seasons threw a wrench in that little dream and my thumb went from green to black.
Their little corpses littered the house, sad drooping things dying of excess humidity or perishing from some sort of weird mildew. What the humidity didn't kill, the cats eagerly attacked. "Succulent", I found, is quite the right word. The cats loved these kinds of plants and would merrily chew through the aloe and jade as if it were the very best grade of catnip. In the course of five years, I had bought at least three jade plants of various sizes and maturity. They had all been consumed like some designer drug by my crazy feline friends.
The last jade plant had bitten the dust a few weeks ago; I'd swept up its mutilated stems and leaves, hauled it to the compost heap, and thought no more about it. I suppose in the back of my mind, I had the idea that eventually I would slink back to the nursery, explain that I'd killed yet another jade plant, and buy a replacement. It turned out I didn't need to do so.
Saturday mornings we clean. Furniture gets dusted, carpets get vacuumed, and the various oddments of living which have accumulated during the week get returned to their proper places. Since we live out in the country, it's not unusual for someone to track in plant material. We do, after all, have to walk through a swampy woodland to get to the front door. I spotted that little bit of green and attempted to pluck it out of the carpet.
It didn't come up. When I pulled at it, I got....that.
Eventually, it dawned on me that the 'tentacles' were small root tendrils and that this was a small piece of the ill fated jade plant. I took a moment to marvel at the tenacity of this little plant which had refused to die. Oh, I knew that cacti and succulents can grow in the most hostile of environments but...that's my carpet in my living room! Asked what we should do with it, my husband yanked it up out of the carpet and marched off with it. Bewildered, I followed him to our temple room.
In the north sector we keep a terra cotta dish of consecrated earth. It came from under the house when the foundation was laid and later from the garden. Its only adornments were small amethyst and citrine points. He tossed it into the dish with the roots angled down toward the soil and we promptly forgot about it.
That was three years ago. Occasionally, I remember to look in the dish and see if the plant is still there. It always is, and recently it put forth a small tendril of stalks with delicate leaves. Once in a great while I remember to spritz some water over the soil. Otherwise, we continue ignoring it. This little plant obviously didn't need our help. It thrives on neglect.
This entry has been written for season five of therealljidol. If you liked it, please consider voting for me when the polls go up. I'll post a link and a reminder later.