I know nothing about plants, other than that I’ve learnt that they die if I try to take care of them.
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I know nothing about plants, other than that I’ve learnt that they die if I try to take care of them. So I leave them alone and they look after themselves. I’ve been ignoring this plant for a year. I don’t know what it is or what it does. The other day, I noticed a weird little mismatched shoot. It keeps growing, more and more overnight, like Jack’s Beanstalk, up and up and up. I think unfurling may happen. I am not even embarrassed about how exciting I find this.
@CiaraNi it must have got some water, right?
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I know nothing about plants, other than that I’ve learnt that they die if I try to take care of them. So I leave them alone and they look after themselves. I’ve been ignoring this plant for a year. I don’t know what it is or what it does. The other day, I noticed a weird little mismatched shoot. It keeps growing, more and more overnight, like Jack’s Beanstalk, up and up and up. I think unfurling may happen. I am not even embarrassed about how exciting I find this.
@CiaraNi omg me too, I love plants but I'm a plant killer! did you water it one or two times or no water at all for one year?
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Impressive! I know the weird aspect of this. When moving an office, we had these huge pots full of soil and Semiramis stuff. Like, too heavy for one person to carry. Devoid of plants. We thought, put those into the dark storage room downstairs and out of the way, once we unpacked the boxes take them out and re-use the soil.
Weeks later when we got to it, we entered the storage room, turned on the light and saw frigging chest-height plants had grown from nowhere and were blooming. Fascinating. -
I know nothing about plants, other than that I’ve learnt that they die if I try to take care of them. So I leave them alone and they look after themselves. I’ve been ignoring this plant for a year. I don’t know what it is or what it does. The other day, I noticed a weird little mismatched shoot. It keeps growing, more and more overnight, like Jack’s Beanstalk, up and up and up. I think unfurling may happen. I am not even embarrassed about how exciting I find this.
This is my hobby now. Staring at this, waiting for something to emerge. It should be a sport. Furling. The Furling Championships. The Olympic Medal In Watching Things Unfurl. Better than worrying about politics, I tell you.
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Impressive! I know the weird aspect of this. When moving an office, we had these huge pots full of soil and Semiramis stuff. Like, too heavy for one person to carry. Devoid of plants. We thought, put those into the dark storage room downstairs and out of the way, once we unpacked the boxes take them out and re-use the soil.
Weeks later when we got to it, we entered the storage room, turned on the light and saw frigging chest-height plants had grown from nowhere and were blooming. Fascinating.@carstenraddatz That's amazing. That must have been quite a surprise! I am genuinely fascinated by the way this plant has just suddenly produced an unexpected bit that just keeps growing and growing and growing. So fast that I'm surprised I haven't caught it in the act.
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@CiaraNi omg me too, I love plants but I'm a plant killer! did you water it one or two times or no water at all for one year?
"did you water it one or two times or no water at all for one year?"
Haha - I see we have the exact same style of plant management. I've been doing the no-watering thing, I think.
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@CiaraNi it must have got some water, right?
@arildsen Apparently!
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@arildsen Apparently!
@CiaraNi but not by you?

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@CiaraNi I have a couple of these in my office. Precisely because they’re impossible to kill!
@macpsych I am learning this! This may be the world's most perfect plant. I was thrilled enough that I hadn't actually killed it, and now it's producing new bits. Amazing.
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@CiaraNi That's a ZZ plant aka Zanzibar Gem. It's really hard to kill & a good choice for beginners

@PhoenixSerenity Thank you! That's a lovely name. I shall be acquiring more Zanibar Gems I think, judging by the success of this one. I won't look it up in detail yet because I am enjoying the suspense of whatever is happening, waiting to see what may or may not emerge. Thanks for its name - I don't even remember where I got this one, so now I know what plant name to seek out.
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"did you water it one or two times or no water at all for one year?"
Haha - I see we have the exact same style of plant management. I've been doing the no-watering thing, I think.
@CiaraNi one of my dearest friends is in charge to send me a message every mmm 10 days maybe? to remind me to water plants, otherwise they'll all die. my other problem, apart from being a plant killer - even if I'd love the idea of my house full of plants, is that if I don’t have something right in front of me, I completely forget it exists until I see it again. a deadly combo for those poor plants!
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I know nothing about plants, other than that I’ve learnt that they die if I try to take care of them. So I leave them alone and they look after themselves. I’ve been ignoring this plant for a year. I don’t know what it is or what it does. The other day, I noticed a weird little mismatched shoot. It keeps growing, more and more overnight, like Jack’s Beanstalk, up and up and up. I think unfurling may happen. I am not even embarrassed about how exciting I find this.
@CiaraNi I would also recommend rhubarb as a difficult plant to kill. I put some in the garden six years ago and it keeps coming back, with no effort on my part. Stuff I planted more recently: dead.
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This is my hobby now. Staring at this, waiting for something to emerge. It should be a sport. Furling. The Furling Championships. The Olympic Medal In Watching Things Unfurl. Better than worrying about politics, I tell you.
I love your hobby. I could watch that for days so definitely, furling should be a national sport.
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@CiaraNi I would also recommend rhubarb as a difficult plant to kill. I put some in the garden six years ago and it keeps coming back, with no effort on my part. Stuff I planted more recently: dead.
@sdarlington Good to know. I wonder if you can grow rhubarb in a pot. After years of killing everything, I've been trying out the same strategy of 'just ignore them' for the outdoor plants on my balcony as well and it's showing promise there too. Great that your rhubarb keeps coming back. Delicious in tarts.
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@CiaraNi one of my dearest friends is in charge to send me a message every mmm 10 days maybe? to remind me to water plants, otherwise they'll all die. my other problem, apart from being a plant killer - even if I'd love the idea of my house full of plants, is that if I don’t have something right in front of me, I completely forget it exists until I see it again. a deadly combo for those poor plants!
@sans_serif_girl That's great, that you have a system of reminders. I noticed once that my plants suddenly seemed to be thriving and growing. I wondered why, then realised that I'd been away a fair bit and had a lot going on and had forgotten to pay any attention to them whatsoever for ages. So I decided to start ignoring them most of the time. Now I water them once at Easter and twice at Christmas and that seems to help.
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I love your hobby. I could watch that for days so definitely, furling should be a national sport.
@forestfern It should, seriously. Now I think that Hurling and Curling are just spelling mistakes. The sport they are meant to be playing is Furling.
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@sans_serif_girl That's great, that you have a system of reminders. I noticed once that my plants suddenly seemed to be thriving and growing. I wondered why, then realised that I'd been away a fair bit and had a lot going on and had forgotten to pay any attention to them whatsoever for ages. So I decided to start ignoring them most of the time. Now I water them once at Easter and twice at Christmas and that seems to help.
@CiaraNi it might be a sort of payback from the plants: you ignore them, and they show you just how well they can thrive even without your attention! the psychology of plants is a mystery (if it exists)
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@CiaraNi it might be a sort of payback from the plants: you ignore them, and they show you just how well they can thrive even without your attention! the psychology of plants is a mystery (if it exists)
@sans_serif_girl Perhaps! Though now I am paying so much attention to this one that it is probably going to die in revenge.
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I know nothing about plants, other than that I’ve learnt that they die if I try to take care of them. So I leave them alone and they look after themselves. I’ve been ignoring this plant for a year. I don’t know what it is or what it does. The other day, I noticed a weird little mismatched shoot. It keeps growing, more and more overnight, like Jack’s Beanstalk, up and up and up. I think unfurling may happen. I am not even embarrassed about how exciting I find this.
@CiaraNi (casts anxious glance at my daughter's plant, which I am trying to remember to water periodically, but not too often. The leaves are green and the plant is not obviously drooping.)
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@sdarlington Good to know. I wonder if you can grow rhubarb in a pot. After years of killing everything, I've been trying out the same strategy of 'just ignore them' for the outdoor plants on my balcony as well and it's showing promise there too. Great that your rhubarb keeps coming back. Delicious in tarts.
@CiaraNi I don't see why it wouldn't grow in a pot. But then I don't see why my other plants die. I may not be the most reliable information source.