My first real job out of college was working for an immigration attorney in Medford, OR. I got hired because of my Spanish degree, not because I had any legal experience, and it was a lot. (Also, just small town things… Turns out my mom taught him when he was in high school and he remembers me as a baby). There’s a lot that I could talk about regarding my work there, but those are stories for another time. Today, I’m here to talk about my plants.
The office I moved into was honestly palatial. I had a nice desk, filing cabinets, bookshelves, and a very cool window ledge. However, it was also decorated in the 70’s, and had gross light, no art, and weird carpet. As a light freak, I immediately brought in a ton of lamps… No fluorescent lights for me, thank you. But it was my mom who figured out what the space really needed… Plants.
It was also my mom who bought my first four little succulents. Look how tiny they were! Over the course my year working there, these plants EXPLODED. Maybe it was the south facing window… Maybe it was the fact that I talked to them while I was working… But they got huge.
When I left the office, I decided that it was time for some of these plants to be propagated. These first propagation flourished, which led to a second round of propagation, which led to me owning SO many plants.
Around this same time, I started adopting stray succulents. I bought some sad tiny ones at the dollar tree that looked like they weren’t going to make it. I picked up a few small discarded ones from my neighbor’s yard. My dad brought home all the tiny office succulents when his company switched to working from home.
The problem (good problem?) with this succulent habit is that succulents are the gateway plant. They’re hard to kill, lulling you into a false sense of security about your gardening prowess. Lately, I have been branching out into more traditional broad-leaf houseplants and even one very unlucky miniature rose, to varying degrees of success.
(Side note about the baby rose: I got it as a valentine’s day gift, you know one of those potted plants that isn’t supposed to survive really. I was determined to keep it alive, but it was slowly withering away. I re-potted it and trimmed it back, but three of the four stalks died completely. The last one, however, has slowly but surely bounced back with a ton of new growth! I am so proud!!! I have no picture, sadly, because my phone camera is currently dysfunctional, but you’ll have to stay tuned for updates.)
All of this is to say, if you had asked me three years ago about my thoughts on plants I would have said “I’m not really a gardening person”. I’m still not really an outdoor garden person, but the last time I daydreamed about my unlimited-budget dream home… It included a greenhouse.
There is something wholly addicting about watching plants grow and flourish under your care. Starting off with succulents maybe gave me an inflated sense of my abilities, but it also gave me a taste of the joy that successful plant raising can bring. Becoming a plant person has been an interesting byproduct of my foray into adulthood, a sort of first glance towards the idea of having a creature (or dare I mention, a human) who is dependent on me for survival. But even as I become responsible for heart beats that aren’t mine, I fully intend to keep filling my living spaces with greenery. Because my mom was right, when you look at a space and think “what does this need?” the answer is usually a plant.