13 Comments
User's avatar
Sarah's avatar

I did not know, until today, that I needed a pep talk to get rid of my dead house plants. As always, you are a gift.

Expand full comment
Deb Champion's avatar

Yep, trash em, get some better ones. Then get rid of those when they look shit too

Expand full comment
Lorene Edwards Forkner's avatar

Utter delight and a rich gift in a world gone mad. I need natural rhythms, including decline and death, that remind me that we are resilient and strong. Thank you

Expand full comment
Deb Champion's avatar

Thanks so much for your comment x

Expand full comment
Cathy Cullis's avatar

I enjoyed reading this so much - I do believe many of us have a little fey in our genes, making us plant-being-related, or some such concoction. You made me smile and laugh, on a sunny Sunday. What more to ask? Your poppies are gorgeous, as are all you do. Hope you feel better as we find our way into spring.

Expand full comment
Deb Champion's avatar

Thanks Cathy! I have not been fling better in any way, but hoping it’ll shift soon.

Expand full comment
Cathy Cullis's avatar

I hope you do feel better soon and send my best wishes x

Expand full comment
Anne Thomas's avatar

Do you know about the leaf sheep slug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costasiella_kuroshimae

Expand full comment
Deb Champion's avatar

They call it kleptoplasty, which I think s not as good as ‘That’s my chloroplast now’ in any way.

Expand full comment
Anne Thomas's avatar

Haha I like them both

Expand full comment
Anne Belov's avatar

Your patch of wild daffodils looks so much like the feral patch I noticed today driving home from the store. It was a small bright spot of hope in the gray PNW and I had a whole 10 seconds of cheer. I have given up on house plants. I think I am considered a criminal, in the halls of the house plants, where they plants gather to discuss to incompetent nincompoops who don't know how to keep them alive, let alone happy.

I would say I have a better record with outdoor plants, but I can attest that it is all them and not me, as a Darwinian gardener.

Expand full comment
Deb Champion's avatar

It’s all a matter of luck I’m sure. I can successfully grow a plant for years and then i cannot grow them anymore and that’s because there’s a small deer eating them but I like the deer so what am I to do?

Expand full comment
Anne Belov's avatar

I have mixed feelings about deer “Aw look! spotty babies!” and “Get your teeth off my maple tree!” I’ve also found that what they won’t eat in one location is very different from what they eat in another. When I lived in one house, they NEVER touched my autumn joy sedums, which I grew in great huge drifts, and where I live now, a mere 8 miles away, they mow them to the ground as soon as they start forming flower buds.

Expand full comment