HEALTHY LIVING INCLUDES LIVING PLANTS

For me, the expression of healthy living doesn't develop fully without living plants in my apartment. Even though I don't always look after them as well as I should, I love to have growing things around me, green things, flowering plants that bring cheer into a room. I've heard many people say, "I don't have a green thumb. I kill every plant I ever get." Well, I've had a few experiences like that, but I have also had some real success stories as well.

Years ago I bought a hibiscus with only tiny unopened buds. To my surprise, when it did flower, it had double blossoms. Beautiful! I have never seen one like it since. I remember counting 29 buds on it at one time. Then I moved it and it stopped blooming. I moved it back and it did bloom again but never as profusely. Periodically I would re-pot it into a bigger container until it got almost too heavy for me to lift. I cut it back when it finally reached the ceiling! Later it spread out so far laterally that I cut it right back, not knowing if it would ever live through such a drastic pruning. Besides the fact that I really don't know much about pruning--where to cut, when to cut, etc. But it survived for many years.

Many times I cut branches off that plant, put them in water and rooted them. I don't know how many new plants I gave away. But there came a day when old age finally got the better of that hibiscus. I had to throw it away. I'm sorry I never took a picture of it while it was in bloom. The one in the picture above is one from a hibiscus I bought last year and, unfortunately, died a few months later.

But that wasn't the end of that plant. I had given one of my "children" to a friend. Her plant had grown large so she took a cutting, rooted it and gave it to me. I now have a great-grandchild of my original hibiscus and it is growing like a weed though it has not yet flowered.

Today I finally re-potted the plants I purchased in the spring. The thought occurred to me that sometimes we need to re-pot parts of our lives. In other words, we need to give them new space, a larger place to grow, some fertilizer and, of course, enough water to benefit them without water-logging them and killing them. As we need to feed our bodies, we need to feed our intellect and our spirits. In my case, I need to inject new life in my business on a regular basis to keep it healthy.

So, if you are a plant lover, be sure to have lots of them in your home. They bring joy and satisfaction and, yes, sometimes sadness when they die and you have to toss them. But they are definitely worth the effort. Praise God for healthy plants that contribute to healthy living!