40 Comments

Thank you Kelton for the great article. I decided to sign up today.

I wanted to share a quick story about my brother's tree. When my brother was born my mom was gifted a potted schefflera tree. My mom loved it and called the tree Shelley.

After 45 years this tree became huge in it's pot. Yes, it was a 45 year old tree in a pot.

10 years ago (Shelley was 38 at the time) my parents decided to travel the country in an RV and asked me to take care of it. Mind you, I have a brown thumb. Every single plant I have ever owned has died on me. I told my parents this but they said it'd be fine if I just gave her enough water and sunlight.

But unfortunately, Shelley died on me too. I was able to keep her going for about 7 years but I left her outside in direct sun one day and the leaves burned.

I was devasted because it was one of the few things my mom had of my brother's, who died in a motorcycle accident 2 decades ago.

I called my mom while my parents were travelling and informed them about my mistake. I cried on the phone as I knew this tree meant a lot to her since it was my brother's.

But to my surprise she said it was okay and not to worry about it. She informed me that she suspected I would probably kill the tree so she took three branches the last time she pruned it and replanted them. 1 of the stalks took root and was going healthy in a new pot in their RV. She calls the new schefflera the Child of Shelley.

Anyway, my parents are no longer travelling and have the Child of Shelley in their dining room. It's a small thing but still young and vibrant. My mom said she liked having a smaller Shelley in her RV and felt like the other one was getting too big anyway (I mean it was a 47 year old tree in a lot).

I haven't thrown Shelley away. Her dried stalks are on my back porch sitting in this massive pot by the door. A weed has taken her place and shares the same pot that Shelley is in. I'm wondering if one of these days I can resurrect Shelley from a dried root but I doubt it. I may just have to take a pruning from the Child of Shelley to make Shelley the 3rd.

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This is such a good story. Long live Shelley in all her iterations!

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Omg, what a story! I can only imagine how you felt and I'm so glad your mom had that foresight!

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Also, I can relate a little - my grandfather planted trees when my sister and I were born. They were blue spruces in the front yard of my dad's house. Unfortunately, they both succumbed to disease a decade or so ago. It felt really strange to see those trees disappear!

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Oct 13Edited

Please don’t blame yourself. All blue spruces get mites and die, faster in heat and drought. They are very specific as to their geographical needs. Nurseries all over blithely sell them anyway and I don’t find that ethical at all.

Same goes for the gorgeous alpine silver firs; they hate temperate climates and are ripped out of national forests by the thousands by ‘entrepreneurs’ I have met. They just shrug and say ‘there’s a demand’. I watched my step mother dig one out of a National Park. The least of her crimes…

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I have no children, no pets, but I was given a small money tree by a friend, bought at the airport as a gift to me in 2009. It is now 5 feet tall and has travelled with me to over half a dozen new homes in different states. Usually on the floor of the passenger seat of my car. Thriving. His name is Pete.

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PETE. I love him.

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This one is a keeper...Especially the last line: You might find yourself to be something entirely else, the cuttings given back to the soil, to the earth, ever thankful for what you left behind. As someone who has pruned a whole person out of my life in a divorce, this essay resonates so much.

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Yessssss!

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I love everything about this essay so much. I used to say that I can keep any animal alive, but give me a healthy thriving plant and I will somehow manage to kill it. Over the last 10 years or so, I've changed that narrative and now have houseplants that are thriving, despite aforementioned animals that try to kill them all 🤪

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Makes the plants (and the pets) feel like they’re outside 😂

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I’ve been keeping a plain ol’ orange geranium alive for over six years by bringing him (Gerry…) inside in the winter, the dark old place had a skylight and he would burst out in bloom again. I have really gained respect for these resilient good sports!’ Today I noticed that a 2” cutting is blooming! Deserves a tag that: Gerry Jr. 😏

A plant in a pot is a whole little world. It’s so calming to take agency, even just for an hour.

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Love the directions you took this metaphor! I grew up in a house filled with plants - my mother had a green thumb and loved her African violets and ivy. Now I live with so much year-round outdoor abundance that I bring in blossoms rather than grow anything inside. Mainly though I just wanted to yell a big YES to pruning everything this time of year, including my own tired external growth. So much wanting to explode now that my roots are firmly planted.

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I love EVERYTHING about this post! Yes! I once had a house with so much light and space. I started with zero and I was there 13 years. When I went to sell it I had 69 plants - and only room where I was moving for a few. Most of them had been repotted and repotted again. Some where ginormous. I found out that corn plants will BLOOM, the most amazing fragrant blooms. I have even less room now and though there is light, there isn't good places to put plants near the light. I've been told I could get around this with grow lights, but the space is so small and I haven't figured it out yet. But I miss them. And yes, they must have room to grow.

I love reading about your jungle SO MUCH.

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I saw a pix of a renter who hung a sturdy rod from existing hardware and then hung several hanging plants in front of a large window. No foot print.

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I love when you write about plants, literally and metaphorically. With help from the pandemic, I severely pruned our dining-out habit, and my culinary skills blossomed. I challenged myself to cook a new recipe once/week and got in the habit of doing that with help of the NY Times Cooking app. Now, I'm challenging myself to cook things at home that for whatever reason seem intimidating and/or with ingredients that are hard to get in our limited grocery store (e.g. steamed mussels in a buttery broth, which I still haven't made at home). But my plants always struggle to survive, in part because one of our cats insists on obsessively chewing their leaves and then barfing them up. Do any of your cats do that too?

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Banzet does - but he only chews the grass-like ones like bamboos. Link actually dug a few plants out, so we put broken terra cotta pots and stones over the soil to prevent him from doing so. Snoots, rest his mischievous soul, used to pee in our plants. Have you already tried spraying them with water when they nibble? That curbed Ban’s habit quite a bit.

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I LOVE your newsletters and writing and perspective, and I especially loved this one. Thank you! 🌿

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Thank you!

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Pruning feels so good and also is a bit scary, in life and in plants! But I loved this essay and the ideas here. Also, I think I need to repot one of my plants.

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I too went on a repotting spree after this 😂

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In the last ~6 years through college and into law school, my plant family has slowly exploded. I prune and propagate, I rotate them around my south facing living room and bedroom, and occasionally, when I'm away for the summer clerking somewhere, they go to my parent's sun-filled house to flourish somehow through being largely ignored by my mom. They're a part of me, integral to my life, and as I ponder an imminent move in a year, I can't imagine it without them. I am thinking about pruning my other belongings, maybe because I'm worried about that move, and I am feeling very heartened by the last line in this piece. I've moved far from family and friends before, and I will again, and "You might find yourself to be something entirely else, the cuttings given back to the soil, to the earth, ever thankful for what you left behind" is resonating deeply right now.

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I love that they wait for you at your mom's.

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Very tempting to cut off all my hair and let it grow all over again!😂 ….if it did grow back. There is always a doubt!!! The doubt rules, even when life lessons teach us the wisdom of growing!

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Great to be reading your writings again. I am always curious about what's up your sleeve on any given week. Love the analogies in this one and certainly it reached a lot of your readers given the number of comments! Go K.

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🥰

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Today I brought all my plants in from the 3 season porch and it’s fully a jungle in here, so once again, your timing is perfect.

Pruning aside- we had a hot and humid summer and many plants are SO MUCH bigger than last year. I’ll cut a bunch in the spring after seeing who survives the less light time but right now it’s so much fun to see the difference new pots and weather made over the summer!

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I try to regularly take pictures of them so I can remember how far they've come... I just need to organize the photos so I can find them again lol

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I do this too- and when they flower! Let me know if you find a good way to organize them- I have no tips. I just see them in “on this day” photos and am impressed.

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I’m so glad you’re back. This is fabulous.

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It's so good to be back!

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Praise be. 💙

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🌿💓

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