My houseplant brown thumb reared its ugly head again over the summer. It started when I bought a replacement plant for my fairy garden and managed to keep it alive for a whopping two weeks. I’ve tried about 10 different plants in my fairy garden and only 2 have hung in there for the long haul—a nerve plant (fittonia) which is a tropical rain forest plant from South America:
And a lovely little asparagus fern:
The carnage continued with the loss of 3 of my African violets. The first two kept flopping no matter what I did (withhold water, water more) and the condition kept getting worse and worse so I eventually composted them. The third plant had root rot for sure. The leaves started to fall off and disintegrate into puddles of water. It was bizarre. When I held the pot upside-down over the trash can to lift off the pot and see what was going on in there, the entire crown of the plant detached from the roots and collapsed into my hand. Okaaaay.
Thankfully just around that time my mother-in-law gave me some African violet leaf cuttings from some plants my sister-in-law grows. I soaked the leaves in a vase of water for a couple of weeks until roots appeared and then I potted them up.
It always amazes me that you can grow a plant from a cutting. The leaves look funny sticking out of the pot on their own, but after about 6 weeks I noticed a tiny new leaf poking out from near the stem of one of the cuttings. A few days later there were 10 baby leaves poking out:
The other cutting shows no sign of new life, but when I tug on the leaf it doesn’t give so I’m hoping it’s just working on a strong root system first.
The grand finale brown thumb moment happened as I was watering my Christmas cactus plants one day. I noticed tiny brown ants coming out of the pot as the water level rose. As I trickled more water into the pot, more and more ants tumbled out. I grabbed the pot and made a run for the back door. By the time I reached the backyard there were ants crawling all over me and the pot.
My husband and I can’t figure out where they got into the house or why they decided to set up residence in my Christmas cactus pot. I tried everything to remove them—even hosing the plant to the roots—but it was no use. Eventually I took several cuttings and composted the rest of the plant and the ants.
As fall slides into winter and I’m forced to take a break from outdoor gardening it’s always nice to have a few houseplants to cheer me up. Unfortunately right now my collection looks more like a hospital and rehab center. But I noticed buds on my remaining Christmas cactus plants, so there’s still hope!