All kinds of weird talents run in my family. My aunt Louise
channels entities who tell her about life on other planets and who have shown
her the history of Atlantis. Mom could tell when I was sick, without even
seeing me: I’d come home from school feeling ill, and she’d already have the
bed turned down for me.
But I never had the green thumb.
Mom and my sister Darlene had the green thumb. They could
take a leaf – one leaf! – from a plant (usually stolen, from a doctor’s office
or a restaurant) – and put it in a pot of unpromising soil, and it would grow.
And in no time they’d have a whole garden full of – whatever.
I had the black thumb – the opposite of the green thumb –
for many years. I’d buy a potted plant, and it would keel over within days. I’d
plant seeds, and nothing would happen. If I repotted something, it died within
weeks.
Except that, over the past few years, something has
happened. Evidently the stars have realigned. Now I can make things grow!
Example: I put a potted Pereskia aculeata (“Barbados gooseberry”) in my office window a
few years ago. Within months it was climbing up the Venetian blinds. It has now
made its way all the way to the ceiling (well over ten feet), and is thriving.
Regardez:
Example: I took a few Sansevieria leaves out of the garbage-can at work, and a few
stems of Epiphyllium that someone threw away, and potted them. The Sansevieria grew at approximately sixty
m.p.h., and is huge now. The Epiphyllium
is thriving, and I even gave some to Partner’s sister. This is the Sansevieria:
Final example: a departing staff member gave me his dying
Dracaena. It looked moribund when I took it in. I repotted it, and gave it some
nourishing plant-food and a little water. It returned from the dead within
days. It’s thriving now.
Finally: I’m making amends for all of the plants I’ve killed
over the years.
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