How much do you think you know yourself? How much of yourself have you not discovered yet? I do not have a green thumb - or so I thought (just in this area..im not yet a hundred per cent green thumber).
One time about last year, in dire boredom, I finally clicked on a boosted ad for one selling "Mosquito-eating plants". The ad went on about saying "low maintenance" and "best for beginners", etcetera. So I left a message on the seller's inbox, got myself some price list and since I am a beginner, I got myself the cheapest one and most likely cute one.
I honestly do not love "love" plants too much. I mean, I like seeing them, appreciating their greens but I do not like the idea of "taking care of them" or "tilling the soil". I dread the idea of digging soil actually. I imagine earthworms crawling. But something has got to break my pandemic boredom, right? And since they fall under "carnivorous" plants, I expect them to not be boring after appreciating their green leaves and stuff.
Excited, I bought two. I was shrieking like a kid who got her first doll house when it arrived. I never really researched much about the plants. I thought when they said "low maintenance" means just get them out of the bag they came in (with their pot of course) leave it outside (or inside where there may be flies, fruit flies, or whatever) and voila it lives.
Oh but no! I expanded my vocabulary through it actually - acclimate. I mean what the hell? When my burmaniis a.k.a "sundews" (the type like that picture up there) first came to me, my very first ones, they did not have much dews but they have a few. And they were soooo cute. So i contacted the seller on how to take care of it. He said "acclimate" first. When it finally got dews i am excited to see it "eat". So i made toothpick bridges for the ants to somehow make them "sight see" and maybe eventually "be curious" and get stuck. But because it's still small, the ants get away.
Days passed and the burmanii looked lonelier. I decided to join groups and everyone have a different way of doing "acclimation". Also different ways on how to get water. Turns out, these babies will not live if you use tap water on them. Their preference - distilled water. I got encouraging words from the group, etcetera.
But soon the burmanii (both) died. I never thought having a plant die on you can be saddening as well. I felt sad. The. I saw a friend who posted her plants on facebook. Her burmanii was actually a little blurred out and was not the real subject of the photo but I recognized it. So i dropped her a message. Told her where i bought it. Turns out she bought from the same shop and got the same fate so my first buddies were not really taken care of and was handed down to me fresh from being repotted. And then, she offered me a guehoii instead. It is easier to take care of. Less sensitive.
Low and behold it is easier to manage. They still need distilled water and stuff. Rain water is the best but they like the sun! Water tray plus sun. So it stays outside most of the time. And I allow it to get some rain time (to also clean out the insects that were left hanging on its dew-y branches).
After few months, I decided to buy burmanii seeds. Maybe me and burmanii did not quite start with the best conditions - human and plant-wise. So I bought a vial, and as most said we should do - sprinkle it in the "medium" ("soil" - for these plants they are not soil soil so - yey for no earthworms) and forget about it. The small pot still needs to be in the water tray.
So I did just that and low and behold...barely a year after, here they are. The bigger one is the "mother plant". the small blooming ones they came from the pods from the mother plant. It is an amazing feeling to be able to keep up and put up with these cuties.
Oh the guehoii? I also got confident with "propagating" so the method is easy.. SNIP in the middle and plant it on the medium. And boy they bloom flowers!!!!!
So I started getting more - venus flytrap (yes the real deal), spatulata ( a bigger burmanii), indica, etcetera. And I just love that feeling of being able to take care of them and see them grow and then give flowers and then when they dry out, they give me seeds so the life cycle continues.
Not only did I get my "Discovery-channel-national-geographic" imagination come to life (plants actually EATING bugs) but I also discovered that I can trust myself with the greens. All in a span of less than a year.
So in case you think you already know your limits... maybe just maybe there is still something in you that you have not discovered yet. So go and explore my friend. This pandemic had us stuck at home we might as well got some things to make our mind and heart happy while we cannot travel. Explore and discover your self moments.
