Kind of a rant with a happy ending:
I have about 200 houseplants. Mostly Philodendrons, Pothos, Monsteras, Scindapsus, syngonium, anthurium, and some miscellaneous snake, jade, bird of paradise plants. I have been an an avid collector for a while. I focus mainly on maturation through sphagnum moss poles. My tallest moss pole plants are 8 feet tall with 1.5ft wide leaves. I'm aiming for "Sydney Plant Guy" sized leaves in the future. I travel to plant conventions around the country looking for rare and exotic new plants to add to my collection.
Let's just say I'm REALLY into plants.
I also HATE office/restaurant plants. Offices and restaurants rarely research plants and just bring them in for Aesthetics. They don't research, provide the right light, humidity, or nutrients. Dentists, Courthouse, steakhouses, all of them. They buy plants and slowly let them die due to neglect. I shouldn't walk into your $150/plate restaurant and see rootbound snake plants dieing in dark cubby holes in the lobby with no grow lights!
I got braces in 2023. My orthodontist has had this Bird of Paradise (BOP) the whole time. Every time I go get my braces adjusted, I sat and stared at this plant feeling so bad for it. It had been shoved in a corner, poorly watered, never fertilized, root bound, and left unrotated so it leans so far to the side in search of light that without the heavy pot, it falls over.
Every single time I went in, I wondered why it was not taken care of. I wanted to say something, anything, but was too scared of being thought of as weird. It's been drooping closer to the ground every time I saw it. I finally got the guts to ask them if they had taken it to see the plant Dr at any point and recommended the local nursery that does plant care, repotting, and diagnosis. The orthodontist said she knew it needed help but couldn't fit it in her car and had been struggling to figure out a solution.
I took a leap of faith, pulled out my phone, showed her all of my plants, and asked her if I could take it home to rehabilitate it.
SHE SAID YES!
She even told me to invoice her for my supplies and time.
I drive a relatively large cargo van so I just lifted it out of the pot with just the liner and carried it out the door when I left. The poor thing is so light from not being watered.
I'm so happy tonight. My heart is so full. I should have asked earlier but I'm glad for this learning experience. I'm very excited to get her acclimatized to my grow space before I get to work on getting her together. I told the orthodontist it would take me about 3 months. I'm so incredibly happy I said something and I'll be able to give this pretty baby a new lease on life ✨️
by Ok-Project9448
12 Comments
That’s so heartwarming!
I love this! You’ll have to keep us posted on how she’s doing!
I do this with my coworkers’ plants. I’ve got a little orchid spa in my office, where I try to rehabilitate sad plants.
My favorite plant.
That’s great! It can be awkward to ask but it’s worth it. Looking forward for progress photos!
Oh my god you did what most of us are afraid to do! This is amazing!
I don’t know if I’d ever ask to rehab someone else’s plant, haha. I’d feel bad for implying they were a bad plant parent. But my uncle and I asked the nurses at the hospital he was at earlier this year to *please* water the giant Christmas cactus (it was about 4 to 5 feet wide) in their visitor room. The poor majestic thing was dying for a drink. We watered it before I left, and I took a piece of it (and the umbrella plant in the same room) to propagate so it wouldn’t totally die.
I have a soft spot for plants that are currently doing poorly in stores, but would definitely perk up with some decent lighting and some water. I picked up a flowering succulent and a nepenthes with no pitchers for that reason recently. The succulent was ridiculously dry, but that flower was begging for someone to appreciate it. So I did. The nepenthes can eat my fungus gnats once it decides it now likes where it’s at and develops pitchers again.
This is how you carve out a niche for yourself, my friends.
Hey this is really cool of you! I find myself doing the same thing at offices and restaurants. So many cool plants just wasting away😭 good luck with your project plant, can’t wait for the updates!!
The story isn’t over! When you bring back a beautiful healthy plant, you ask if they would like to add a few more to the office, and offer your plant maintenance services to keep them healthy. This is how earning income doing what you love begins! 😆
Please update on what you are doing for this plant because mine looks exactly like this : (
I make a point to ask people who cares for their plants, whether they look fab and I want to drop a compliment or they look drab and I want to scold. It’s fun.