Confession: I Kill Plants

One of the downsides of listing our house for sale has been the need to keep it beautiful. Our realtor has been very helpful in staging each room to show it as advantageously as possible, but the items she has used make it feel like it isn’t our home. Brand new towels in all the bathrooms. Extra pillows on the beds. All my favorite knick-knacks banished.

And fresh flowers and potted plants placed in several rooms.

I kill plants. Not intentionally, but they tend to die on my watch. I just do not have a green thumb. I have many friends who love to garden, and I wish them well. But working outside is not my thing. Too many memories of weeding for my mother when I was a kid and having to avoid the daddy-long-legs.

I have spent much of my adult years pruning obligations out of my life, so I could focus my attention where I want to. Less baking. Fewer shopping expeditions. Quitting activities that do not bring me joy. I do not need more things in my life that need care. Such as plants. They need water. And I forget.

The fake plant I watered twice

For years, except for the cut flowers my husband gives me on occasion, I have only had two fake plants in my house. One plant is a realistic-looking green plant in a pot that one of my former Administrative Assistants gave me. She died far too young, just a few years after the year we worked together. She was a good assistant and a good person, and I remember her fondly. I think of her every time I look at the plant.

But I admit that when I first got it, I watered it twice before I realized it was fake. I confessed that story to her and to many others. So I remember my ignorance when I look at the plant as well as my assistant, and it keeps me humble.

The bouquet from my 25th-anniversary party

The other fake plant I keep at home is a purple flower bouquet that was displayed at my 25th-anniversary party at Hallmark. Hallmark makes a big deal over 25th-anniversary celebrations, and the day was a happy occasion for me. I remember my colleagues and that day joyfully when I see these flowers.

Many people would probably think it odd to keep fake flowers in obviously fake grass (it’s purple, too) in one’s home for so many years. This bouquet will probably get thrown out before we move to our new house. After all, my 25th anniversary at Hallmark was now almost fifteen years ago. And I have pictures of the day when I want to remember it.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been challenged to keep the plants that our realtor put in the house from dying. So far, I’ve been successful with the live plants, though the cut flowers, of course, have not lasted more than a few days before needing replenishment.

Flattened pansies, the morning after a rainstorm

Still, I need to be more watchful. One night recently, before a big rainstorm, I left the potted pansies on our deck. I hadn’t expected the rain to hit so hard. The next morning, the pansies were flattened. I’ve moved them under cover, and I’m trying to revive them before our realtor notices.

One of my primary goals in our new home is to keep the yard as low-maintenance as possible. My husband and I don’t want to spend much time caring for the yard. My plan is to focus on native Missouri plants. I assume that they will thrive more easily without attention, as they did on the prairie for centuries before Kansas City developed.

How do you feel about plants and gardening?