Intensive care

Occasionally I am shown a plant in very poor condition and asked “What can I do with it?” My immediate reaction is to suggest throwing it in the bin but I have realised over the years that people get attached to a plant. Some cases I have seen are terminal. There are other cases that would pull through with some intensive care but hey, why not just go and buy another. Oops, sorry, there’s me being insensitive again. I try to suggest a remedy but I don’t hold much hope.

I suppose it comes from being in the office plant display trade where the customer likes to see plants at their very best. Any plants in an area with poor light will deteriorate over time and before anyone has a chance to say that the plant isn’t looking as good as it used to, it is replaced with a new one. Members of staff will ask whether they can take the old one home but invariably it is left in the office, doesn’t get watered, then dies.

Did I mention that the replacement plant is free of charge? Yes, pay for a maintenance service and the plants are replaced for free. Excluding, that is, those plants that have been accidentally or wilfully damaged or taken for a dance around the office. Yes, a dance. It was such an unusual event that I can still remember from over 20 years ago that it was a large yucca plant. The leading partner probably had his eye poked out by the pointed leaves but didn’t notice because it was a Friday afternoon. At Christmas. Yes, dear readers, he had been drinking alcohol!

Forgetting to water the plant is the most common cause of death. That, followed by a lack of light. The first cause can be remedied with a self watering plant container. The reservoir of water inside the plant container is topped up every couple of weeks and the plant can largely be forgotten. Taking the intensive care theme a bit further, there are designer plant containers with a different type of self watering system. These would be really at home in a hospital reception area as they have a medical type drip feed for the water. This can be adjusted depending on the plant and conditions.

See them on plantcontainershop.com with other designer planters