Sarah Mitchell My heartleaf philodendron and my pink princess sit about three feet apart on the same shelf, and for the first several months I treated them almost identically, assuming that because they’re both philodendrons, they’d respond the same way to the same care. The heartleaf did fine. The pink princess slowly lost most of its pink … Read more
I’d owned an aloe vera plant for almost a year purely as decoration before I ever thought to cut a leaf open. That changed after a minor kitchen burn sent me searching my counter for anything that might help, and I remembered the plant sitting on my windowsill. Since then, actually using this plant for … Read more
My jade plant was a housewarming gift, already a few years old and shaped like a miniature tree with a genuinely thick, woody-looking trunk. For the first year I cared for it exactly like my other succulents — water when dry, bright light, leave it alone otherwise — and it survived fine but looked increasingly … Read more
I own four different Monstera varieties at this point, which happened almost by accident — I kept buying “just one more” without fully registering how different they actually are from each other until I had them all in the same room. A Monstera deliciosa, an adansonii, a borsigiana, and, more recently, a much smaller and … Read more
I had my Monstera deliciosa for almost two years before it produced a single leaf with real splits and holes. Every new leaf came in large and healthy, but solid — no fenestration, none of the dramatic Swiss-cheese look I’d bought the plant for in the first place. I spent a long time assuming this … Read more
The first time a leaf on my Monstera turned yellow, I panicked and did the worst possible thing: I changed three variables at once. I watered it, moved it to a brighter spot, and added fertilizer, all within the same week, hoping one of them would fix it. Looking back, that made it nearly impossible … Read more
I’ve had my bird of paradise plant for four years, and it didn’t produce a single flower until year three. For a long time I assumed blooming indoors just wasn’t realistic for this plant, based on some vague sense that it was more of a “grow it for the leaves” situation inside a home. It … Read more
I bought my prayer plant labeled simply “Maranta” at a plant sale table, and for the first several months I genuinely thought I’d bought a small Calathea, since the leaf patterns looked similar enough at a glance and I hadn’t done my homework. It wasn’t until I noticed my plant’s leaves folding up dramatically every … Read more
My peace lily is easily the most dramatic plant I’ve ever owned, and I mean that as a compliment. Within a day of getting thirsty, its leaves flop completely over the edge of the pot in a way that looks alarming the first time you see it. I panicked the first time it happened, convinced … Read more
My ZZ plant is the only houseplant I’ve ever hurt through kindness rather than neglect. I bought it specifically because I’d heard it was nearly indestructible, and I treated that reputation as an invitation to water it on the same weekly schedule as my more thirsty plants. Within about two months, the base of one … Read more