Friday, May 15, 2015

Poison(ed?) Ivy

I got 4 houseplants for my birthday (sorry...just going to keep dragging it out).  I like plants, and had never gotten around to getting any since moving here (really since moving to Seminary, now that I think about it, so a very long time), so it was nice to suddenly have several.  One of the gifts was an ivy from a lovely couple from St. Someone's.  It was beautiful and green, and I thought, "well, shit."  Not a terribly nice thing to think about a lovely present from lovely people, right?  It was the fault of neither the present nor the givers, though.  It was me.  I kill ivy.  If you go into an ivy Post Office, you'll see pictures of my face on the wanted posters.  I have tried numerous times, and failed numerous times.  My former sister-in-law was (probably still is) great with houseplants, and had ivy that she gave me a cutting of when I was in college.  Killed it.  We tried again.  Same results.  Mom gave me a cutting.  Nope.  I bought an actual plant, then killed it, too.   Here's the the thing:  I don't generally kill plants.  African violets can be stubborn little buggers, but the SIL gave me one of those, too, and it was still alive when I moved to Texas and left it with my parents.  I worked at the library on campus during college, and for several semesters had the added job of taking care of all of the plants on all 5 floors of the library.  They did fine (5 floors, not one ivy...did the gods know?!).  People keep telling me that it's next to impossible to kill ivy.  Well, I'm an overachiever, OK?  I used to say the same thing to people who killed spider plants.  "But you can't kill a spider plant!  I have several!"  I no longer say that to people about any kind of plant.  I am an ivy mass murderer and was given a poor, defenseless ivy as a birthday present.  The good news is it's still alive.  The bad news is, it started looking bad about a week after I got it.  The hubby kept telling me to give it up, it was dead, move on.  I kept saying (shouting, really), "NO!  I AM NOT GIVING UP ON THE IVY!"  I sent Mom a picture and asked for advice.  She said as long as there is still green there is still hope, so I told the hubby to shut up.  I knew it needed to be repotted, as did the other plants, so it's roots would have room, and today was repotting day.  My little fighter has been alive (at least in my care) for 3 days less than a month.  Please send prayers that it takes to its new home and thrives.  If not, you might have to come adopt it and save its poor little life.  In the meantime, here are some ivy shoes:









Most of these, if not all, are meant to be parts of Poison Ivy (from Batman) costumes.   I wonder if they would fall apart if I wore them?  Would I kill ivy shoes, too?  

If you want a visual for what you are praying for, here are all 4 repotted plants:




See?  There's even a friggin' orchid, and I haven't killed it, yet.  Good luck, my little ivy in the green pot.  I love you.  Please don't die.

PS--"lovely couple from St. Someone's" is a terrible blog nickname.  So are initials.  I'm starting to think those of you referenced in the blog need to give me nickname suggestions.



1 comment:

  1. Please feel free to kill each and every one of those ivy shoes! Go little ivy, you can do it! ME

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