{"id":7070,"date":"2012-12-19T14:07:59","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T21:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=7070"},"modified":"2012-12-20T06:43:55","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T13:43:55","slug":"drama-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=7070","title":{"rendered":"Drama Queen."},"content":{"rendered":"

I like most of my house plants.\u00a0 They are quiet, green, and help purify the air.\u00a0 Which is good.\u00a0 Because sometimes I go a little crazy with the bleach.\u00a0 And that citrus cilantro home fragrance from Pier 1.\u00a0 In any case, my house plants do their job and ask for little in return. The Fittonia<\/a> is my very favorite.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She has brilliant stripes, is bushy and full, and sends up cute white flower spikes when she’s happy.<\/p>\n

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When she’s sad (because I forgot to water) all she does is wilt to get my attention.\u00a0 And as soon I freshen her up a bit, she pops right back to attention.\u00a0 As if to say, “It’s fine.\u00a0 I’m good.\u00a0 It’s all behind us now.”\u00a0 Which is how I know she’s a female.<\/p>\n

My Wandering Jew<\/a> is another self-sufficient grower.<\/p>\n

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He doesn’t require a lot of water and has the bonus of a lovely purple on the underside of his leaves.\u00a0 Of course, Wandering Jew can be invasive can cause skin irritation to sensitive people so he has his own container hanging out of reach.\u00a0 He is incredibly tough and I’ve never had any complaint from him (even when I forget to water).\u00a0 He actually gets even fuller if you cut off hanging tendrils and those cut off limbs will start new Wandering Jew plants if simply put in a glass of water or stuck into some soil.\u00a0 It’s his fortitude, ability to irritate,\u00a0 and easy tendency to spread his spawn that lets me know he’s a male.<\/p>\n

My Spider Plant not only flourishes without much attention, she is flexible enough to hang inside or outside, depending on the season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Her spiky leaves are a nice variety to the rounded lobes of my other plants.\u00a0 And when she is struggling (yes, when I forget to water), there are no dramatics.\u00a0 Her leaves just start to fade out to a paler green until I finally notice.\u00a0 Spider plants<\/a> are also one of many plants that have been proven by NASA to reduce pollutants.\u00a0 Which seems like her own particular super power.\u00a0 That is, until you take note of how many “babies” or offshoots she can produce in a short amount of time.\u00a0 If she had the capacity to make any more babies, she’d get her own show on TLC.<\/p>\n

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Of course, some of my plants make a more obvious complaint about my tendency to forget about their hydration needs.\u00a0 My Philodendron <\/a>will spout a yellow leaf or 2 as a gentle warning that she is dried out.<\/p>\n

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So will my Peace Lily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A few yellow, dried up fronds are my Lucky Bamboo’s means of signaling for help, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I bought this bamboo a couple years ago with the idea of teaching her to curl further as she grew taller.\u00a0 Unfortunately I found out later that process <\/a>entails containing your plant in a box, exposing only certain parts of it to sunlight, and turning it an inch at a time for over a year or more.\u00a0 So I decided I should take up an easier and less time-consuming project.\u00a0 Like claymation.<\/p>\n

Too bad I introduced a dud into this hardy and enjoyable lot of greenery.\u00a0 Several China dolls<\/a> were browning and on sale at the local nursery and I snapped them up.\u00a0 Rescuing crippled and discounted plants is my specialty.\u00a0 Usually.\u00a0 Unfortunately, just as fast as they greened up, they turned brown again.\u00a0 And they continually dropped dead leaves like confetti in a ticker tape parade.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At first I thought warm air from the heating vent was bothering them so I turned it away.\u00a0 But then I did a little research and discovered they really want to be watered.\u00a0 A lot.\u00a0 On a DAILY basis.\u00a0 Oh, hell no.\u00a0 Not around here.<\/p>\n

I shook off all their dry and dead leaves and stabbed them with a fertilizer spike.\u00a0 Hoping the combination of shame and nutrients would trigger a new growth spurt.\u00a0 Not a good look for you, ladies.<\/p>\n

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Then I burrowed a deep hole into their dirt, down to the base of the planter, and filled it with water.\u00a0 That much water should take a week or more to be absorbed.\u00a0 And if they don’t like soggy roots, well, there’s always the compost pile.\u00a0 We don’t do divas around here.<\/p>\n

Besides there’s a new drama queen in town.<\/p>\n

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With her own special need for watering and cleaning.<\/p>\n

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The fake plants find this appalling.<\/p>\n

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“Really.\u00a0 Mother Nature has no shame.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“I know, right?”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Ladies, ladies, please.\u00a0 Let’s try to keep the Christmas spirit alive, shall we?”<\/p>\n

What?\u00a0 Your plants can’t talk?\u00a0 Huh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I like most of my house plants.\u00a0 They are quiet, green, and help purify the air.\u00a0 Which is good.\u00a0 Because sometimes I go a little crazy with the bleach.\u00a0 And that citrus cilantro home fragrance from Pier 1.\u00a0 In any case, my house plants do their job and ask for little in return. The Fittonia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7070"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7124,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7070\/revisions\/7124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}