Gardening

When Houseplants Complain

It is important to listen

Image by Free-Photos (Pixabay)

The houseplants in my writing room would not shut up. They were all complaining about their positioning in regard to current sunshine angling. The sun has moved a lot in the last three months — or should I say that the planet has moved a lot?

It can be rather disconcerting to hear constant complaining while you are writing. It is distracting and annoying. I had to do something.

No one was complaining more vociferously than ficus tree #2. I used to have eight ficus trees in my home but now I only have three. Closing my eyes, I think of the other five trees I gave away or sold. I truly hope they are happy where ever they are now living.

Ficus tree #1 is my tallest tree at just under six feet. It has been very happy where it is and has not complained once. Ficus tree #2 is about ten inches shorter than ficus tree #1. It commands a very prominent place right in front of one of the two large east-facing windows in my writing room. But it was screaming at me to please lift it up. It did not want to be moved elsewhere; it just wanted to be higher up so that the tree filled the window. As it was, ficus tree #2 lived in a pot that was on the floor and only the top of the tree looked out the window. It wanted all of its leaves to be able to look out the window.

Ficus tree #3, by the way, is a two-foot youngster who lives in the library/office where I never do any writing.

So I stopped everything and had a nice long conversation with ficus tree #2. Giving it some love light, I listened and learned what it wanted and promised to find a way to lift it up higher.

I looked around the room and spotted a small, short table that was just the right height. I had to shuffle some things around but I liberated that table and put it under ficus tree #2. The tree is very, very happy and has stopped complaining. It now fills the window and every one of its leaves and branches can look out the window at the big giant tree growing outside.

I cannot wait until springtime when the big giant tree outside is filled with birds singing away. My windows will be open then so that ficus tree #2 and all the other plants can luxuriate in the bird music. Me…