What I learnt from plants

Have you ever thought about a fact how amazing plants are? Strong but sensitive, my favorite kind of “personality”.  It sounds silly but there is a lot I have learnt in last two or three years with all my attempts to keep my plants alive and happy. Being introvert like me, it can give you some outlook on how to cope with humans too!

1. THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT
   I have some of the plants from same kind and even they should be totally identical, they are not. One of them likes more light, another not so much, same with water. It is almost as they had personalities or what and you get to know them to be able to take a good care of them. It is never good to generalize I suppose, plants nor people.
2. TOO MUCH LOVE KILLS THEM
   After several attempts of trying to keep new plants alive I figured that I was just taking too much care of them. You know, watered them here and there (every time I would go around), sprayed them, moved them to find the best spot. Well, most of them just rather died to be honest. Don’t suffocate anyone with too much love. Especially cactae and succulent are rather “suffer alone” kind  of folks.
3. TOO LITTLE LOVE KILLS THEM TOO
   On the other hand, too little affection might kill those more sensitive one. I recently bought amazing Calathea with velvety purple leaves but isn’t she high maintenance. If I don’t water her every day she becomes all sad and sloppy, I swear, she really looks sad! This prima donna really reminds me of a Rose from The Little Prince, calling for attention.
4. THEY DON’T LIKE TO BE PUSHED AROUND
   Especially with us Bloggers and Instagramers, we don’t go far for a perfect picture and involving plants just feels natural. But man, they are not so happy about that and certainly don’t care about any of likes we earn. On the other hand move them if they don’t look very happy, push them little bit. Can be applied on people too, one of my favorite quotes say “If you don’t like something, move, you are not a tree”.
5. CHOOSE THE PERFECT FIT
   Well noone is perfect, but hey, we are all trying to get as close as possible and love the imperfections, aren’t we? When choosing your green (or human) friends, consider if you are a good fit together and if they will be happy at your home. How much light they need? Water? Do you travel a lot? Do you have animals? Children? Choosing living room plant or life partner is about the same, really. Consider what is important, ignore the rest and go for it!
6. DO YOUR BEST
   This one is such a cliché but works every time. You know, sometimes you loose friend, green, white, black or yellow, don’t really matter, right? And maybe you did your best and maybe there was nothing else you could do. Don’t be sad and just tell yourself, I will try again, I will do my best and hope for the best.

See, what did I tell you. Maybe plants can’t really talk, have no feelings and just don’t care at all or do they? You think what you want but take my words, they can teach a lot about humans too. Sort of simplified version Humans 101, since they can’t really yell at you, break up with you or pack their shit and leave. But some old Chinese proverb says something about that too so I might be right.

Is there something you adore on your green friends?

B.