My family has a long history of green thumbs, but I always assumed that gene hadn’t been passed down to me. I struggled keeping plants alive; even so-called “beginner” plants like succulents and air plants got the best of me. With each plant I killed, I felt worse and worse about getting new ones.
Over the past year, I’ve been feeling really overwhelmed. I’ve been working on things to help center myself and keep me motivated.
We have dozens of plants in my mother’s house that always made me feel relaxed. Halfway through my junior year, I decided to give plants another try after years of failed attempts. I decided not to start with a succulent, which I was inevitably going to forget to water and kill like the others, but a marimo moss ball. I swore to myself that if I could keep my moss ball alive for a year, I would allow myself to venture into other plants.
I treated my moss ball like a first-born child. I put little crystals in its jar, flew it home with me in a little bag full of water and changed its water biweekly for a whole year. When I moved into my dorm this year, I took a chance and bought a monstera adonsonii. It was definitely not a beginner plant, and it drooped dramatically during the first weeks I had it.
I feared the worst, and in a final effort to solve the droopiness and yellow leaves, which Google told me was due to overwatering, I gave it a bit more water than I was comfortable with. Seemingly overnight, it was green and perky again. With more water, it quickly sprouted not one, not two, but eight new leaves. After my monstera adonsonii was brought back from near-death, I’ve since shamelessly bought two golden pothos, which are thriving in addition to my previous plants.
All this time, I’ve desired owning a monstera deliciosa. However, adult plants can be insanely expensive, and the ones sold around Davie were all too big to thrive in a dorm room. I took another chance and decided to try growing from seeds. I bought a pack of eleven seeds from a local nursery and planted them in an ice cube tray. I covered them with a Ziploc bag and lightly misted them every four days. The nursery told me that the seeds would germinate and sprout in as little as 12 days, and after two weeks passed with no signs of growth, I was ready to give up. Sad that my green thumb wasn’t quite green enough to nurture new plants, I still misted them every four days in hopes that something would change.
Nearly two months after I planted them, something did change. Two little sprouts poked through the dirt. Then four, then six, and now I have nine out of the 11 seeds growing. I’ve been able to replant four of them into their own individual grow pots, and they all have cute little monstera deliciosa leaves.
My plants are my pride and joy. They’re a great reminder of growth, both as a person and a hobby. They keep me motivated and remind me that I’m capable of doing things that I don’t always give myself credit for, and to never give up on things that make you happy.
