Black Thumbs & Book Talk

[prosodic]

I bought a houseplant about a year ago that, according to the accompanying tag, "thrives on neglect."

Yeah, not so much. It's dying. And I do water it on occasion (as it obviously needs water, but it's a tropical plant, so it doesn't need much), and I put it in a spot where it can get a lot of natural light. And that's really all I'm supposed to do for it, so I don't know why it's dying. It was so pretty when I first got it. Now it looks sad and pathetic.

I had several houseplants in Germany and I never had a problem with them. I had several cacti, a small tree, and a few other things. I gave them away before we left, but they were healthy and happy.

The plant I have now that isn't doing well is a Ponytail Palm. My African violets even died recently and those are supposed to be really easy to care for, and I followed the instructions on those too.

Maybe my house just isn't a good environment for plants. I have no idea.

Soon, the Ponytail Palm will be gone and I won't have any houseplants left. And I don't know if I should keep trying or just give up. I've never lived in a house without plants.

***

I started this morning off differently than I do every other morning. Maybe that's a good thing. I was trying to finish up The Thirteenth Tale last night before bed. But Lance came in, wanting to sleep, so I put it down. But it was the first thing I thought about when I woke up this morning. Lance was already up. So as soon as I decided to get up myself, I just sat up in bed, turned on the lamp, picked up the book, and started reading. I finally finished it. :) It took me FOREVER to read it (about 2 months, I think? A very long time for me). I've been too busy to have a lot of leisure reading time. It is a pretty amazing novel. I loved it.

Now I'm moving on to The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, on the very enthusiastic recommendation of a friend who emailed me just to tell me about it, and said she is anxious to discuss it with me. So I requested it from the library. It's supposed to be a modern re-telling of Hamlet, so it has definitely piqued my curiosity.

Comments

[anmorata.livejournal.com]

I have a black thumb with plants, but as it turns out, I give them tap water. The fluoride in the tap water here may be what's causing them not to thrive. I think I'm going to switch to filtered water and see what happens, just for a little bit.

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Interesting. I never considered that, but it could be the problem.