i'm so used to sleeping at 4-5am in the morning, i couldn't get myself to go to bed at 2am, so instead of tossing and turning, i'm up doing anything else but sleeping. watching late night infomercials. watering my plants. making an additional weblog entry. i have to reclaim my normal sleep patterns. i can't keep on waking up around noon, feels like the day is already half over when i get up.
something's been on my mind though. sure, it could be a few things, i'm usually very much preoccupied in thought, but tonight, on this night when i should be sleeping but am not, i'm concerned about the welfare of my plants.
now amongst my social circle, i've developed a reputation for being somewhat of a gardener, someone with a green thumb, a man who knows his way amongst plants. while this is true to some extent - i have several seasons of gardening underneath my belt (a hobby i sort of just picked up when i was in high school) - now that i have my own place, with my own plants, i am somehow driving them all to the brink of botanical doom.
okay, maybe that's a bit of melodramedy, but my houseplants are not doing well.
first, there's the jasmine bush. since it's been relocated to my place, it sort of suddenly stopped flowering when it used to be an all year round producer of fragrant blossoms. the jasmine i can't sort of understand why it wouldn't be doing so well, it likes a warmer, sunny climate, and standing on the floor of my kitchen close to a drafty backdoor with only a few hours of morning sunlight, it's not the most ideal condition. nevertheless, it seems to be surviving anyway, which is a lot more than i can say about some of my other plants.
the spiderplant laurie gave me as a housewarming present, it's barely clinging to life. i had it in my bathroom, which you figured would be a good place for a plant, with all that humidity from the shower, but over the months the tips of the leaves have yellowed and then browned, and now i'm down to just a few leaves when there used to be more. the leaves i do have, they're all brown at the tips, and i don't know how long the spiderplant will last. maybe it's the frosted window in the bathroom, not letting in enough sunlight. thinking that's the case, i've relocated the plant to the southern facing windowed part of my house. it's been a few days, it'll take a few weeks more before i can tell if the plant will survive. i hope it does pull through, this plant has sentimental value. i remember laurie telling me that spiderplants are easy to take care of, you just basically water them and they thrive. apparently that's not the case here.
the same browning is happening to my lucky bamboo plants in the bathroom as well. now you have understand that browning is a result of dry weather conditions. wintertime here in new england, plants are prone to browning, because of the low humidity. it doesn't help to water the plants, excessive watering will only rot the roots and cause more damage. misting with a spray is futile unless i can keep the plants perpetually moist. one solution is to put the plant in the bathroom, but that seems to be what's causing all this problem. i have a feeling it's the lack of natural sunlight, or at least the filtered sunlight in the bathroom isn't good enough for the plants. maybe there's some sort of plant medicine for this condition, or maybe i can run a humidifier.
it's starting to get close to my bedtime (4am), maybe i'll try that "sleep" thing again.