incomplete thoughts about plants

Some plants are tenacious. They not only persevere, but thrive despite adversity and hatred. They are the assholes of botany, and they will never go away. No matter how carefully you try to control or eliminate them, they keep finding ways to grow and spread their kind, whether relentlessly with rhizomes or opportunistically with seeds. Some people call them weeds, but they will win out eventually.

Some plants are fragile. They can suffer in various ways if conditions aren’t perfect. Whether hot or cold, wet or dry, sun or shade, it seems like you just can’t get them to grow successfully. These plants need constant support, encouragement, and the right feeding schedule, but too much attention can cause more harm than good. Such creatures are unable to be satisfied where they are, and are always searching in vain for the perfect niche environment.

Some people obsess over their plants. They smother their photosynthesizing family members like an overprotective parent, constantly trying to shape them or force them to fit their vision. They don’t seem to understand that most plants know how to grow, if not always in the way or place their gardeners expect.

Some people neglect their plants, yet expect that they will survive somehow. They liked or even loved their plants at first, but they expected to get more satisfaction from plant ownership, and maybe they wish they had a different plant that would grow into what they wanted. It takes a lot of effort to nourish plants and keep them growing for many years, and some people just aren’t good at making that effort. Maybe they are too busy trying survive themselves, or maybe they realize they should have learned to grow in their own way before trying to take care of a plant.

In the meantime, a plant doesn’t understand why it is neglected, but it knows it is suffering. It will do what it can to find moisture and nutrients, but leaving its container just isn’t possible sometimes. It is overlooked, taken for granted, and left to wither when other things become more important to its caretaker. Unable to become a different kind of plant, it can only hope its owner decides it is worth the effort to keep it alive.