Jerk Plant Was Mad at Me…

By Lindsay James @leavelindzalone

I mean, REALLY mad at me. See?

Since it was quite rainy and dreary on garden planting day a couple Sunday afternoons past (April 28th), we took to the indoors and among the things we accomplished was some serious trimming, pruning and taming of the indoor plants – the indoor plants being an Irish shamrock houseplant and a parlor palm. And yes, if you hadn’t guessed already, I have names for my plants. The Irish shamrock is “Jerk Plant” because it never ever wants to cooperate. I move it, it wilts. I water it, its leaves turn yellow from overwatering. I give it the sun it likes, it starts growing all scraggly and awful looking. The name just seemed appropriate and it has kind of stuck. The parlor palm has a name as well, though not so much referring to its character. Jay just started referring to it as “palm pilot” one day and it just stuck. It is easier than saying “the parlor palm” I guess. But I digress.

Anyways, back to the taming of the houseplants. Jerk plant was missing a bunch of soil and was full of dried dead stems. Jay had overwatered it a few days previously and it was already in rough shape, so we figured what could it hurt to do the rest? We spent a solid twenty minutes removing all of the dead, wilted and yellowed stems and gave it some new soil as well. Lucky, us it was just what jerk plant needed and a few days later it is looking good. Its leaves are opening again (most days) and there is some new growth and new flowers as well.

Palm Pilot didn’t get angry at us for trimming all the dead brown leaves away at least. It looks much better for it, though significantly less bushy and thick.

Our parlor palm is actually recovering now from a spider mite infestation that it appears we have finally eradicated after quite a long time spent experimenting with different methods of treatment.  It was quite a trim.

Both plants are looking significantly better now that they have been cleaned up. I am quite satisfied with the results all around. Now, on to the next project!