When Effort Fails: A Lesson from a Houseplant
by Emily Conrad
I have a track record of killing houseplants. African violets and cyclamen shriveled up almost as soon as I brought them in the house. I once killed a cactus in spectacular fashion by putting it too close to the hot oven. I kept an anthurium alive and flourishing at work for months, but it died shortly after I brought it home. And when I put our two-feet-across jade plant outside for the summer, the squirrels nibbled it to death. Some of my other victims include an aloe, a dieffenbachia, an umbrella plant, and a Norfolk Island pine.
Changing my habits to try to take better care of my plants proved dangerous, too. I would get too extreme, killing them with too much water or too much sun or... well, if I knew, I wouldn't have killed so many.
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I have a track record of killing houseplants. African violets and cyclamen shriveled up almost as soon as I brought them in the house. I once killed a cactus in spectacular fashion by putting it too close to the hot oven. I kept an anthurium alive and flourishing at work for months, but it died shortly after I brought it home. And when I put our two-feet-across jade plant outside for the summer, the squirrels nibbled it to death. Some of my other victims include an aloe, a dieffenbachia, an umbrella plant, and a Norfolk Island pine.
Changing my habits to try to take better care of my plants proved dangerous, too. I would get too extreme, killing them with too much water or too much sun or... well, if I knew, I wouldn't have killed so many.
Read more »
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