Wednesday, January 13, 2016

The Plant Lives On For Warm Heart Wednesday #9

Welcome to Warm Heart Wednesday sponsored by Ms. Jenny at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent."  This is where we share what has warmed our hearts.  For a list of this week's participants head over to Jenny's blog.

I know this looks like an ordinary plant, but there's a story behind it.
Years ago, while living in Virginia Beach, Virginia I bought a Schefflera plant.  It was sometime in the mid 1970's.  In 1981 my husband accepted a job in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.  Before we moved my parents drove down to Virginia Beach from New Jersey to see us before we left.  Our furniture was going to be put into storage for a while and we really didn't have room in the car to transport any large plants.  So, I offered my Schefflera plant to my mother and my parents drove it back to New Jersey where it continued to live for many years.

In 2001 my Mom died and Dad assured me that he would continue to water the plants.  He did continue to water them, but after a while they weren't looking too well.  He was probably over watering a bit.  Around 2004 I realized that the Schefflera plant might not make it.  On a trip to New Jersey I decided to cut off a few leaves and bring them home with me to root.  I didn't know if that was even possible, but I thought I'd give it a try.  I put the leaves in a Zip Lock bag with a little water and flew home to Texas.

When I got home I dipped the stems in rooting hormone and planted them in a pot.  All except one died.  The one that lived never looked too healthy and never got taller or grew any more leaves.  A year later I decided it might be root bound and I should probably repot it.  When I went to repot it I discovered that it had never grown any roots.  The stem had just been sitting in the damp potting soil all that time.  It never grew, but it never died either.  I decided to give it another shot and dipped the stem in the rooting hormone again and replanted it.  This time it worked!  The plant started to grow.

You guessed it.  That's the plant today.  It's been repotted many times.  When it gets too tall I clip it back.  Most of the year it lives in the backyard because we have a pretty mild climate here and plants love the humidity.  If they predict a frost I drag it into the garage.  I won't let it die.  This plant has a bit of a family history that warms my heart every time I see it.

When my Dad moved to Texas in 2006 one of his neighbors took the original plant.  I have no idea if that one is alive today, but I know a piece of it is still alive in Texas.

Now head over to Jenny's blog for a list of Warm Heart Wednesday participants.  Thanks for visiting...

12 comments:

  1. Nice that your Schefflera plant is doing so well. It is nice to have things to bring memories, nice ones especially. Your NJ rock gets you back to your roots.
    I really like my having Dad's farm rocks. Thanks for peeking in on them. And for your nice comment.
    ..

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    1. I bet it feels like a little bit of home to you. It was meant to live!!!

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  2. BTW, Jenny's Mr. Link is up now.
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  3. Aw....this is a warm hearted story. Thanks for sharing with us Betty. I have a tiny bamboo plant that I bought a few years ago and it is nice and green and growing. I had a bigger one from my days of working but when we got Mr. Kitty he got a hold of it and tore it to shreds. So I replaced it. LOL! Thanks for sharing. Hugs, Anne

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  4. Oh Betty. What a sweet story. Amazing how it hung on like that. It deserved a chance.
    I had a plant the overwintered in the garage we didn't even intend it. We moved on an ice day in Dec. and just dumped the pots in the garage. It wasn't until late summer we moved things around and found it! Hanging on. We gave it a chance and started watering it and it grew.

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  5. I love my plants, too. Glad you got to save that beauty.

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  6. Hi Betty, We bought a pair of electric clippers from chemy.com. So nice and so easy to deal with. Our cat Rose hated the sound and she is a long hair and gets these awful knots like Quasimodo , I saw your message about chewy.com so had to comment again here! There products and service were exceptional! I accidentally ordered more razors for later and realized Rose won't let us near here with that clipper so I had to cancel and they were super nice. Thanks for sharing because we have to speak up about the good ones out there. Thanks Betty. I do hate hauling dog food for Leo when I help Hannah buy it because I babysit Jeremy's dogs and they like his food better. HaHaHa! Then I lug the cat litter, I will go back over to their site and check more things out. Thank you and enjoy your day.

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  7. That's one hearty plant, Betty! I like to think it bonded with you from way back. :-)
    The View from the Top of the Ladder

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  8. What a nice story ! I still have a plant which somebody had thrown in the bin I had picked it up and over the years it became a huge plant !

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  9. What a great story. And you must have a bright green thumb!

    =)

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  10. I absolutely love your story. We had a plant started from one of my Grandmothers. It's in the care of my girlfriend until we go north this summer.

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  11. Oh Betty. I loved this story.

    It's so neat when something has survived and thrived in spite of so many changes.

    It gives me hope to read things like this.

    And it definitely warms my heart.

    Thank you for sharing. You are lovely.

    XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

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