This sad-looking house plant is really quite remarkable. Twenty-five or thirty years ago it belonged to one of my co-workers at the Forestry Office. It started to look really bad, so they decided to toss it.
When I heard about it’s death sentence I asked if I could have it and got it. I knew that often if you just cut the top off of plants they will send out new shoots, so I whacked off about the top third of the plant and took it home.
It sat in the corner of our dining room for ages, just a sawed off stump, but eventually, as I had hoped, it sent out new shoots which became the two thick forks you see at the top of the trunk, rich with foliage. It continued to grow in the corner of the dining room, but last year it got to the point where it was just too tall, unbalanced, and malformed, so I decided to finally shuck it.
Before I got around to doing that, my soft heart intervened and I decided to once again just whack off the top. This time I didn’t have much faith that it had enough life in it to re-sprout. After I had whacked it, I put it back in it’s dark corner in the dining room, where it was regularly watered. It sat there, unresponsive for half a year.
The last time I looked at it, it showed no signs of life, so I thought I should dump it, but didn’t get around to doing it. Yesterday, my wife directed my attention to the plant, and I was utterly amazed to see the big green sprouts forming near its top.
The plant took its time, but it seems, it’s not done with being alive.
Take a look at my paintings: davidmarchant2.ca
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