Plant Psychology

So someday I'd like to have a greenhouse and/or a sun room, but right now I have one south facing window and a crowd of five plants vying for the best rays. And, in the last few weeks I have made some interesting plant observations that could almost be a fascinating study in human character (but then I'm a plant nerd and I read way more into these things than is practical.)

1. The Aloe vera purchased in July started with four fleshy leaves and was a scrawny 4" tall. I now have a beast with at least twenty appendages spiraling out in all directions that has grown to almost two feet tall. This plant literally grows a new shoot every week. I am not joking when I say I can see this one grow. Some plants have a serious will to live; give this one some occasional water and good sun and stand back.
2. The African violet also from this summer has made a nice comeback. I started applying a light liquid fertilizer every month and have been richly rewarded for my small efforts. Currently the little bloomer has twelve open flowers and fifteen buds (yes, I did just count!) Amazing. The existing twelve flowers opened the week of December 13 and on this day not a single one has even begun to fade. Amazing. I am grateful for a plant that has such super curb appeal and seriously exceeded my expectations.
3. My orchid is my lesson is patience. The little beauty still looks great. It has good light and routine fertilizer, but has grown only slightly and added only one or two little feeder roots in three months. I am grateful for its consistency.
4. In October I moved the geranium (Pelargonium spp.) from our borrowed outdoor garden plot to our apartment dining room. Since then it has followed an interesting course. When I moved it in it was incredibly happy and blooming like crazy with plentiful rich green leaves. Slowly, those flowers faded, but were not replaced with new blooms. Then, slowly it stopped growing. Then the nice deep green leaves started to shrivel and curl and drop. All the while I was tending and deadheading, and watering as needed. But, to no avail. The geranium seemed to be giving up. Little do I know! In the last week it has made a transformation. Instead of continuing to drop leaves and shrivel, the leaves that remained doubled in size and started reaching for the sunlight. They are a nice rich green and no other leaves have dropped since. I have an unsuspecting hero, a champion adapter, a tenacious fighter. (By the way, the pot fellow to the geranium was a lavender. It pooped out in week 2 of the move from outside to inside. All the more reason for a kudos to the geranium).
5. An avocado seed. Okay, so I have two lessons in patience. But, I know that it works, I know what to expect, so I can be patient. In Atlanta I grew an avocado from a seed and waited six months for it to germinate in a glass of water. (It works, it really does!) When my Atlanta avocado finally had some roots and a shoot, I planted it up and in time had a three foot tall indoor avocado plant. My current avocado has taken just as long, but at long last it has three beautiful white roots and two upright shoots. In the next few days I intend to plant it up.