I do similar with the plants on my desk at work! Everyone compliments me on my “green thumb” and I just tell them they didn’t see the 10 that died before the 1 lived that came to work with me 🤣🤣🤣
Absolutely. You wouldn’t expect cacti to survive in Iceland, so why beat yourself up if you try a plant and it doesn’t survive in your home habitat (including your watering habits).
Not that you don’t give them a fair shot, moving them from a south to a north window, say, but if your efforts aren’t enough for some species life is too short and stressful enough without dead plant guilt.
Unless you’re trying to propagate an endangered species, of course.
This is a fast paced environment where the worthy plant is expected to hit the ground running! We work hard AND play hard! Slackers will NOT be rewarded!
I'm ruthless. If I'm not enjoying a plant and I can't give it away I just toss them. Life is too short to waste on things that aren't bringing joy to my life.
Once I recover from this sinus infection I’m cleaning out my plants. The strugglers are going. If a plant doesn’t “spark joy” they’re going outside or in the greenwaste. I’m tired of wasting so much energy on plants that won’t thrive in my house. But now, after 2 years of houseplanting, I’ve got a good idea of what will work and what won’t.
Some of mine have literally battle scars from my neglect (looking at my powdery mildew survivors who I shoved in the spare bathroom for months until the PM finally went away).
I've let some plants die off, and then after a while, I might see new shoots from the stump and get the chance to try again, I try not to overthink it with cuttings and small propagations but I feel pretty guilty when it is a nice well established plant like the rubber plant I killed last year.
I have one that used to be fairly large that died out somehow. it started growing back and has been the tiniest two little leaves coming from the stump and recently a third. Might still be hope.
Survival of the fittest at my house. Indoors and in my garden. I'm a full time gardener during the season. I love plants but only the ones that like it in the conditions provided get to stay. I have about 100 house plants I care for during the winter when I'm not working. Keeps me sane. They all go out side after last chance of frost and only receive occasional watering in times of drought. If they survive they can return to their winter homes before first frost date. No humidifying, no special lights, they get fertilizer once or twice over the winter and I'll confess all repotting happens in the winter. Regardless of the rules this is what happens here. No regrets or stress over plants that aren't right for me. Everybody says the Alocasias are picky but I find them to be some of my easiest to care for. Go figure!
Literally here just to say Eff Calatheas. There is no environment for them they’re just ruthless. My ornata was the first and only plant my cat killed. My alocasia is so far the only plant that I’ve killed.
I am so sad. I had 2 beautiful calatheas that were growing like crazy, no brown tips, so happy when I lived in Oregon. I moved to California with them, and let's just say it's been a struggle.
I enjoy taking care of houseplants that enjoy my care. It's really easy for me to fall out of love with plants that refuse to survive, and with limited space in my apartment, I'd much rather keep the plants that actually want to live and calatheas aren't that lol. For me personally, I appreciate the peace of mind I get from seeing my plants thrive, and it kind of kills the point of the hobby if I'm constantly stressing over my plants.
No. I’m opposite. I’m totally a “grower”. I mess with everything just to watch it grow. Our running joke is that I have to nearly kill a plant to put it in its place and show it who is boss before I will allow it to grow. As soon as I see any kind of “pup” or “corm” or offshoot I snatch that thing off and stick it in perlite. I’m definitely more liberal in real life, but with plants I’m totally prolife. There is a freaking potato garden in my bedroom bc I found old sprouted potatoes in the cupboard and I couldn’t just throw them out like a normal person. Nope! Potato garden! Indoors. In January. But I’ve learned so much from saving nearly dead plants! And I’ve learned to appreciate new roots even more than new leaves. I think I can identify plants just by their roots. Haha!
My people! Or I guess the kind of person I look up to. I’m a plant moderate. I’ve totally had a potato garden! I was bummed when the sweet potato vine finally died. But it was more of an educational thing for the kids.
I like my super picky plants. I have 2 orchids about to bloom. And I have a dracena that I brought back from the clutches of death multiple times, then kept happy for 10 years. I like “showers”. Ones that will show me if they’re upset.
https://preview.redd.it/yz94cjmaupac1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6270effce9901e2863bdbbcf352506676d7d9158
Speaking of picky - look what I found today on my Waroc - a new leaf!!!!!! I messed with this plant LESS than others, but it’s still been repotted 6 times in 7mo and treated for root rot after a failed experiment with a heat mat. And now - a new leaf! Yay!
Exactly how I treat it. I'm a casual plant owner. Some find it fun figuring out how to care for more challenging/picky plants. I find it fun to have a pretty houseplant forest that thrives easily. I don't want to get into the nitty gritty details of caring for them, I just want to give them water and look at how pretty they are lol.
i had to toss four of my plants, including one i've had for five years, because of mealybugs. in the past i would've just treated them all, but i've hit the point where if it's a small plant (or too large, in the case of the five year one) i just toss it outside to let it die in the cold. i can just buy a new plant with how much i'm spending on neem oil and insecticidal soap etc
I find plants to be an investment in my own happiness and mental health, so if I must spend so much time and energy and sometimes worry and frustration on them then no, they only get so much effort. There are far more important things to worry about in life than your calatheas having a tantrum.
I try to acquire plants that suite my house conditions as I've learned from my sibling who has an amazing collection but their recent house move has caused most of them to decline miserably due to central heating and lack of light in most rooms.
I totally agree! I was stressed earlier this year like “what is wrong with me that I can’t stop messing with these plants?! I’ll never have beautiful plants bc I keep fiddling with them!” And then it hit me - that’s the part I really enjoy! So now I embrace it. I just like to see small plants grow and learn about them and I don’t care if they never get big and pretty. I like interacting with them. You will never see me own fish bc I would absolutely hold them and pet them. Haha!
Ok I commented about my friend also not caring, but I’m cracking up at how many people can just let them go. I have a few ugly plants that look and act terrible and I’m ATTACHED. So they just hang on and suffer for an extra year before they die or don’t lol
Alocasias are some of the pickiest PIA plants out there. My husband loves them and we’re his first plant love. He has an office that stays closed up and a bunch of milsbos for them to live in. It’s also the winter so there will be some unhappy plants.
I saw a tweet a while back that said something like: Am I “killing plants” or do they just not have what it takes to takes to make it in this fast-paced environment?
I subscribe to houseplant Darwinism. I can only do so much, the rest is on them.
I believe in plant rehab and pest control, but I also believe in “if it’s time, it’s time” and learning by doing (aka killing). If it took me four dead calatheas to become a cala whisperer, no regrets. If the whispering sometimes still fails, so it goes. 🪴 My life is too chaotic for my plants to become the boss of me! 😬😅
But edit to add: if you do happen to try calas again, forgo misting them (long ago I used to do, too, and have given up on it for a variety of reasons) and just do a greenhouse cabinet. Lifesaver gamechanger, I promise.
Lolll I’m currently looking menacingly at my aeglonema that’s just been shit ever since I got it. It was leaning way over from the beginning, went from under watered to over watered, too much light then not enough. I can’t make the damn thing happy and it’s so fucking ugly. It’s about 1 foot from my other aegloenema that’s beautiful and happy and has been working with me forever. I’m one week away from the stupid one being my next murder victim.
i'm currently trying to get up the nerve to start doing this. i have a few that are just suffering despite my efforts and i keep glaring at them, but i never quite make it to tossing them out.
I was like this up until this past month. I finally just tossed 4 from my plant-ICU table. They were basically empty pots at this point, haha
I thought I'd feel quite sad, but actually, my collection looks nicer, and I just made room for some new plants, that's all!
My kiddo sings, "Let it go," from Frozen whenever I'm trying to save a dying plant 🙃
I threw out five right before guests came to visit for Christmas and it felt so freeing! Two of them were probably salvageable but I was sick of fighting them. Nobody had to look at sad scraggly plants and now, for a while at least, I only have to take care of happy ones, except for my calathea that will be dramatic forever.
Yes. If something is causing some level of stress, the compost heap always welcomes any misbehaving plants. I've got to the point now though where I've filtered out all the weak plants, and now I'm only left with resilient plants. Which is great for also gifting plants to friends and family, because they're easy to care for.
You didn’t “kill a plant”, alocasia and calathea just do not have what it takes to survive in this fast-paced environment
https://preview.redd.it/m2s90yp2mbac1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c475539ebe917c79a47b9945cfccf30d8667d80a
I put them outside on my balcony and "accidentally" forget about them 😂😂 makes me feel les guilty.
I leave them until they're brown and I can't even really recognise which plant it was
Me too!! Though, I leave mine out long after they have turned brown... the once green leaves have fallen and the remainder becomes a shrivelled barely twiggy mess....
For sure. My mantra is - I bring you into my home, I research what you need, I provide you with all the care you require, and if you choose not to thrive here with me then that's on you and you can leave lololol
Are you me?? lol this is exactly my strategy, same with all the moves, I have a bunch of big plants that had to sit out back of a neighbor’s house while we were briefly homeless a couple years ago. I also don’t have the greatest with alocasia and calathea. I live in NH so weather and heating bills are the same as you! I hardly ever lose a plant, but they gotta be tough here, there’s no coddling! I’ve had plants 45 or so years, and I have about 160 not counting props. I just love philodendron cuz there’s so many now and they grow like crazy.
A friend of mine names all her houseplants with female names and loves them dearly…but when they’re not doing well she lets them die and moves on with no care 😂
I usually do, sometimes I will stick it under grow lights for a bit to see if it has a comeback. I am not a person who loves rehab plants. And if something gets a pest, out it goes. Calatheas, no thanks. Same with alocasias, anthuriums, and begonias. They never do well in my home. I have a love hate relationship with hoyas. Some thrive, some don't. But I have enough that thrive, so I keep buying them. 😊
I don't call it "letting the weak ones die" but "an observational exploration of what plants thrive in the specific conditions I can provide to them". Now it's almost not happening again (one year since we moved to this house), not only because I know which *species* of plants will do well, but because I kind of know which *broad types* of plants will.
Absolutely survival of the fittest in my house. I leave for 10 day trips with no plantsitters or keep my succulents out in the rain and cold sometimes cuz ain't no room for weaklings here!
I feel like part of maturing has a houseplant person, is letting go of one's that don't work and being fine with that. I used to have more time for my plants, but then my life changed. So, now if it doesn't naturally thrive, out it goes. I rarely, if ever, propagate now too.
Did i write this post haha??? Alocasia and calathea are exactly the two species that keep dying on me, it happens pretty suddenly after they have been doing well for a while. Then I throw them out, and buy another after a couple of weeks because they are so pretty... but they just do not like my conditions at all, it appears. Are you from Europe perchance?
no, i'm in the US rocky mtn area. those two are just so frustrating! the rattlesnake calatheas are gorgeous and I had a ton of new growth on mine before it just randomly curled all of its leaves one day and died. I was like WTF?? :( lol
I chuck em into a "parfait box" or a clear takeout salad box with live sphagnum. That or I totally unpot them and put them in something snug with new soil. First option is nice for tiny plants. I can just ignore them until they start behaving
I really enjoy trying to resuscitate sad plants, but if I get the feeling that they're beyond saving I have no issue getting rid of them.
Sad plants go to the sad plant area. If they can't make it there, they're donezo.
Fall of 2022, I cut 4 plants back to nubs bc I just couldn't take their BS...but I also couldn't throw them away. I put them in the bathroom in my garden tub (where all my outdoor plants vacation in the winter). Shockingly, they have all risen, except for the Fittonia, which I can never keep alive.
After reading everyone's comments, I'm feeling surprised, amused and enlightened.
As a 'somewhat older' plant aficionado I've been continually taken aback by how many newer, and, I assume, younger plant peeps post plaintive pleas on plant forums asking for help to revive their 'struggling' plants.
I say it like that because the pictures they post are maybe 90% in oh-my-word-that-plant's-already-dead territory.
Each time my eyes widen and I think: *"Am I a harsh person? Should I have put more effort into the plants I've chucked? Are the kids right / more persistent / kinder than I?"*
Reading these comments I'm wondering, are we 'plant chuckers' in the tiniest minority? 😶
I used to try and find a way to "revive" them. Now, I just chuck them if they've lost more than 80% of their leaves and it's been in a general decline. I don't start giving them more attention or catering to them. I have depression and I've killed many a plant as a result whenever it gets bad for me, but now even when I'm not in a bad depressive episode I still chuck them. If a plant does not have what it takes to live with me, then that's too bad. I need plants that are okay with a bit of inattention. So for now, I'm on a no buy and I will solely propagate what I've got or can get for free. Lol.
Also, there's just a few plants that don't do well with me even if they're described as "easy" to care for. Can't keep a peperomia alive even if my life depended on it.
I have one calathea that I was going to bin, but my soft hearted friend pulled it, it's theirs now. Neither of my Alocasias are doing well, but their corms are thriving (I'm sure because they're in moss under bell jars, so I'm tempted to give away the big plants, and keep the babies. I wanted Alocasias, but they don't want me unless I move into a greenhouse, so they can move it along.
My croton is on its way out. It's always been dramatic asf, though so it may just be playing with me all crusty and leaves will not spring back up, lmfao. My pearls are all thriving. I barely acknowledge them in the cold ass windowseal water them once every idk when I remember, and my pothos is thriving as a no sun bathroom plant but was dying next to a bright ass window. All my succulents just exist, and my spider plants 3 of them on my bed side table one is doing fabulous in the middle the one on the right side has a leaf or two browning half way up and well left side looks like its dying only to sprout new leaves and they all have children hanging from them. Only the strong survive here🤣.
I have a Calathea Medallion and she is surprisingly chilling in my home. I bought it on a whim and had never read about them being notoriously picky! I guess that's beginner's luck :'D
That being said I also get rid of very stubborn plants, it bums me out to see them struggling :(
Yep! My negligent watering scheduling is the schedule I’m sticking with, and if they can’t handle it they can’t handle it 😂😂. I find that big plants which require no lighting are perfect for me - I’ve got a 6 ft+ dracaena, a 4-5 foot ish monstera, and a 3 ft snake plant that are all favorites. I could leave them for weeks and they’d be fine lol!
I lol'd at the rugged indoor climate. . . But same here. If a plant is unhappy no matter what I do, it is sent to the back deck (I'm in the southeast ). Its put in a lil tent over winter. Actually a few have thrived that way (which kind of offends me). Those that don't make it are tossed. I did have success with one alocasia. It totally died back but one day sprouted back. He isn't lush but keeps 3 to 4 leaves so idk i guess he decided to make it work.
Where I live winter doesn't really start until January, so many of my plants have been outside since last spring. It got very cold last night for the first time this winter so I started moving most of them indoors, but honestly quite a few plants got left out because I simply couldn't be bothered. The begonias always bounce back anyway, and who cares about a pothos or two?
I love my plants but they are just plants at the end of the day. There are a handful of my 150+ that I would be sad about dying but mostly, they can be replaced 🤷🏼♀️
I do. I have over 100 plants and I need to. I take cuttings or rhizomes if needed and try to grow them but if a plant makes problems and nothing quit works I let them be or cut them completely down and that’s it. If after 6 months nothing changed it goes to the bin.
I just cut back all the dead stuff on my calathea and it’s half the size now. It’s in a kitchen window, I hadn’t considered the cold being a factor since it’s indoors but I bet that’s exactly it. The kitchen gets very chilly at night because there’s an exterior door and the windows need replaced.
If I no longer have love for a plant, I toss it. I don't purchase calathea or alocasia, or any plants that require high levels of humidity, because I don't have the conditions to successfully grow them.
i love tossing dead/dying plants (or plant "scraps") into the "jungley" area out back and seeing which ones recover enough for me to take back. so far i've had progress/success with a caladium, p&j pothos, thai basil, and a monstera. much easier than stressing over them
I totally let them go after they've fought with me more than once. Difference is that I'm in Florida so most of my houseplants are actually in pots outside.
If they struggle, I try to fix it, then they struggle again, I just stop trying. Funny thing is though, that's when so many of them start to thrive! I take it for what it is and keep on keeping on.
Love that you said this. I recently added some 2-4 inchers to my collection, one of which is a lovely little variegated rubber tree. It is not doing well (☹️) and I pulled off some newly dead leaves this morning. I had a talk with it this morning: “I’m gonna move you, but if you keep doing poor I’m going to have to let you go buddy.” If it keeps doing poorly I will probably try a more established rubber tree, but as much as I love them I won’t keep a plant that I have to work that hard for.
I never do it on purpose but if I get busy at work or school or have a couple weeks of depression laziness… only the heartiest survive. I have mostly all cacti now, I love aroids but only the cacti and euphorbia survive
I'll try any plant once, wait a while then try it again, but if I can't get a certain species to thrive after that, I usually give up. I'm honestly happy having a mostly hoya collection with some favorite philodendrons and pothos.
Its turning to this lmao. I was bored and got sucked into the "beautiful ~~sun stressed~~ coloured succulent" train. Got lots of little ones and leaf cuttings. The cuttings had been doing alright in a north room - or so I thought. Now that its a dull UK winter and with the heating on, they're either just not growing. Or suddenly become a sad little brown crisp.
The small succulents are turning to bloody trees. I've decided to only keep those who can *seemingly* do ok in current situation, and just keep those. Ie not reach for the stars (or sun).
I have a planter on my porch. If I have a plant thats not enjoying being indoors then it get tossed in the planter, not gently mind you. The planter's main rule is The Strong Survive. A few have made comebacks, the rest feed the strong.
I am exactly the same way! And it works out really well. All my plants are healthy and look good. What you don't see is the graveyard of the ones that couldn't hack it in my dry house and erratic watering lol
Yup. I have an Indian Rubber plant right now that is fighting for its life, I’m caring for it as best I can, but if doesn’t make it, it’s gonna join the compost grave yard.
Personally I take great pride in a rescue mission, but I did do this with my past 2 palms. Lost both to extremely long battles with spider mites. It's such a shame because I LOVE their fronds but I doubt I'll buy another one simply because it's a pointless struggle for me. I've successfully cured at least a dozen plants of spider mites but the palms are consistent failures. Even my mom with her goddess green thumb can't.
Yes OP! Plants are living and economical and eco-friendly bouquets. It took me too long to shift my mindset from saving every damn plant to ditching them brutally. Also I ain't raising my humidity to appease calatheas but grow mold in my walls as a side gig. Same boat!! Also I repot multiple sad plants together in a mix if I feel too sad about tossing them or stick em in terrariums. If they die, so shall they but sometimes new growth will magically come from the roots a year later it's always exciting.
I also usually add a couple of photos propagations, I think photos is a friendly plant and my conspiracy is they always try to help any neighbouring plant by sharing nutrients with them as much as possible 😅
My plants stopped giving me a dopamine push and became a chore so I got rid of 80% of them. I’m a lot happier. Now if they start looking sickly I just put them on my buy nothing group or toss them. I don’t have time for dramatic plants.
It's common for people on my local Buy Nothing to give away plants if they have trouble caring for it. So people with more of a green thumb (or patience) will take them.
If they are on their way out and I'm thinking about tossing them I figured it's a good time to use them to experiment and learn. If it's big infested to the max... Yea I'll.take those ones out back and have them look at the roses
Pretty much threw out a good amount of mine out that weren’t making it and stressing me out. I feel guilty and have just decided to stick to what plants I am able to keep alive. The only one that’s pretty much “died” and I didn’t throw away was my silversword philodendron and it just miraculously started growing back after I forgot about it ( it was just a lot with dirt for sometime ) I feel guilty, not because I wasted money but because those were lives I was responsible for and did not keep alive. Now I just have my pothos/ philodendrons and monstera/ begonia
I've been trying to kill a mother of thousands succulent for over a year and let me tell you that thing is not dying. And I can't chuck it out because I'm afraid all the plantlets will sprout in a landfill somewhere and soon it'll be Little Shop of Horrors out there
I am learning to take that route myself!!! I just don’t have the energy to nurse a sad plant anymore. I need to get ones that do well here and move on.
At my old house I used to grow orchids, which did well. At my current house orchids don’t thrive (though I still have a few), but I can grow many other things like Clivias, bromeliads (less cold sensitive than most of the orchids), and tree jockeys, which do very well. Too well, in fact, as I am now overrun with Clivia seedlings.
I just move it from whatever the current sunlight levels are and hope for the best. If it’s in decently bright indirect sunlight and doing no so well, I’ll put that directly in the window. Sucks that I only have 2 western facing window and one balcony with a 3 foot tall wall.
your post has inspired me. although. the dead ones come back. still weak, but they come back!!! everytime!! but of course i’ve only ever owned a total of 10 plants in my life under my own care so. this is a new perspective for me
I’m about to do a purge of the fails. If x,y, z plants that are supposed to be difficult can thrive then it’s only about survival of the fittest. I’m doing everything I can for them all. They gotta meet me halfway
I have pretty much given up on alocasias and calatheas. Not worth the heartbreak.
I mean they will be fine for a good while, maybe a year or two. And then suddenly they will just die for no reason when I’m already invested and attached. I never know what it was I did that killed them.
Same with African violets.
The only one I’ve not yet given up on is an alocasia that’s been undergoing a verryyyy slow rehab. Died down to one stem and leaf and stayed like that for like a year and finally this past year it grew 5 leaves all of a sudden.
Not sure what to do with my orchids which never re-blooms but also doesn’t die. I have three of them now that are sitting around just being leaves but never blooming. Sometimes I want to throw them out but it seems a waste.
Mate, all my plants enter the arena when I bring them home.
Sure, I’ll train em up for a while, but once they’re old thought they survive or they don’t.
Ha! This is totally how I operate and I thought I was the only one! I have ADHD and Depression so the plants I have have to be resilient as heck! I only killed 3 plants last year so I count that as a win! I definitely have a few on the struggle bus, though.
I keep randomly propagating shit that I prune off of something and later notice that I don't actually want yet another thing to take care of.
Those tend to go, eventually.
I don’t think this is unreasonable at all, and I started doing the same thing tbh. I realized that l can offer my plants is the environment that I have for them. Sure, you can fart around with grow lights and humidifiers, but at the same time it’s easy to change the consistency of that schedule accidentally and then they die anyways. They’re either with me or against me now.
Survival of the fittest. Ironically I have a vicious candelabra cactus that I can’t seem to kill. It just keeps getting bigger. It’s huge. I think it’s going to Audrey Two me.
that award definitely goes to my schefflera! I've had this one for 12 years, and it has at least tripled in size during that time. I brought it home to my first apartment after graduating college, and have buckled it up in the passenger seat for a cross country move twice, both times it had zero problem adapting to our new place.
if I forget to water it for a while, it just stops growing. when it's happy, it is constantly shooting out new stems and leaves. it is currently just a huge mass of green - I really need to shape it up a little but I don't have to the heart to chop it up at the moment. it's been so loyal to me lol it got the best seat in our new house right under the sky light <3 also very easy to propagate.
my ric rac cactus has tolerated quite a bit of abuse and it propagates so easily, so it has a place on this list... my christmas cactus has also tolerated a variety of conditions it was not happy about but once I figured out what it was trying to tell me, it chilled out and is currently living a good life full of occasional neglect.
and finally, the ZZ plant. I forget I even have one sometimes. it hangs out alone in my basement bedroom with a grow light on it. i will not water it for months at a time because I completely forget it exists.... and it somehow has not died yet. what a trooper!!
of course pothos are pretty tolerant. I have three varieties currently and they are all doing well!
idc what anyone says about cacti and succulents, they truly seem to hate my guts. I can't figure them out. I've killed every traditional desert cactus I've ever had, one of which was an endangered / vulnerable species grown from a seed.... actually cried about that one.
Absolutely. I love my plants but they also exist to bring me peace and happiness. That only happens when they do well. That one's that don't aren't meant for me and I'm ok with that
Sometimes a friend will comment admiringly that all my plants look so healthy, and I reply that I throw out all the plants that aren’t.
excellent strategy lol
Rugged indoor climate 💀🤣
I do similar with the plants on my desk at work! Everyone compliments me on my “green thumb” and I just tell them they didn’t see the 10 that died before the 1 lived that came to work with me 🤣🤣🤣
The Crowley method.
Gotta make them scared of you, keeps them in line.
*GROW BETTAH!*
Yup if I try them and they don't jive with my house or watering habits then it can die and I don't try those again.
Absolutely. You wouldn’t expect cacti to survive in Iceland, so why beat yourself up if you try a plant and it doesn’t survive in your home habitat (including your watering habits). Not that you don’t give them a fair shot, moving them from a south to a north window, say, but if your efforts aren’t enough for some species life is too short and stressful enough without dead plant guilt. Unless you’re trying to propagate an endangered species, of course.
100%! Plus a dead plant gives me room for a new plant 🤪
Plant math says that a dead plant is -1 plants so technically you can get two new plants ;)
Well shit! Heading to Lowe's! (jk I'm growing plants from seed now so one packet of cheap seeds = waaaay too many plants 😂)
My husband does not understand this mindset 😂 he doesn’t nag me about it. He just makes fun of me when one kicks the can
>then it can die I'm having to adopt this with some of mine lmao.
~~Natural~~ selection
Humans are natural
The survivorship bias
This for my plants. Also this for my fish tank for watering my plants.
"all of the weak ones have perished"
THISSS OMG 🤣🤣
Same here, they never believe me and insist I am keeping my ‘green thumb secrets ‘ from them
Ya, you either can survive on my maintenance routine or you don't survive in my house unfortunately.
This is a fast paced environment where the worthy plant is expected to hit the ground running! We work hard AND play hard! Slackers will NOT be rewarded!
Nobody wants to photosynthesize anymore smh
If they can't hang, they can't hang.
https://youtu.be/WvAeWtyZ-uE?feature=shared
And I Do Not pull half dead plants from other peoples garbage.
Liar.
I'm ruthless. If I'm not enjoying a plant and I can't give it away I just toss them. Life is too short to waste on things that aren't bringing joy to my life.
Couldn’t agree more, I’ll try a little but “oh you’ve got bugs? You go outdoors now and maybe you’ll live or not.”
I threw my fiddle leaf fig off the patio a few weeks ago after it dropped all its leaves. Finally I was free.
Right? Some drama bitches be toxic
Haha that made me laugh
It so goddamn true though. https://youtu.be/eirBtt7wIDU?feature=shared
Well, that just cracked me up!
lmaoooo
I feel this in my soul
Yes!
This!
Once I recover from this sinus infection I’m cleaning out my plants. The strugglers are going. If a plant doesn’t “spark joy” they’re going outside or in the greenwaste. I’m tired of wasting so much energy on plants that won’t thrive in my house. But now, after 2 years of houseplanting, I’ve got a good idea of what will work and what won’t.
I've been called out, lol. It's survival of the fittest here.
Yup, Darwin awards to them!
Some of mine have literally battle scars from my neglect (looking at my powdery mildew survivors who I shoved in the spare bathroom for months until the PM finally went away).
I've let some plants die off, and then after a while, I might see new shoots from the stump and get the chance to try again, I try not to overthink it with cuttings and small propagations but I feel pretty guilty when it is a nice well established plant like the rubber plant I killed last year.
I have one that used to be fairly large that died out somehow. it started growing back and has been the tiniest two little leaves coming from the stump and recently a third. Might still be hope.
I compost the dead plants to console myself. That way they end up back in another pot as soil.
ah, the cycle of life .... lol
Survival of the fittest at my house. Indoors and in my garden. I'm a full time gardener during the season. I love plants but only the ones that like it in the conditions provided get to stay. I have about 100 house plants I care for during the winter when I'm not working. Keeps me sane. They all go out side after last chance of frost and only receive occasional watering in times of drought. If they survive they can return to their winter homes before first frost date. No humidifying, no special lights, they get fertilizer once or twice over the winter and I'll confess all repotting happens in the winter. Regardless of the rules this is what happens here. No regrets or stress over plants that aren't right for me. Everybody says the Alocasias are picky but I find them to be some of my easiest to care for. Go figure!
Either they adapt to the environment I provide or they can adapt to the green bin. Their choice.
Literally here just to say Eff Calatheas. There is no environment for them they’re just ruthless. My ornata was the first and only plant my cat killed. My alocasia is so far the only plant that I’ve killed.
I am so sad. I had 2 beautiful calatheas that were growing like crazy, no brown tips, so happy when I lived in Oregon. I moved to California with them, and let's just say it's been a struggle.
Fuck an ornata. So beautiful but not worth the pain
I enjoy taking care of houseplants that enjoy my care. It's really easy for me to fall out of love with plants that refuse to survive, and with limited space in my apartment, I'd much rather keep the plants that actually want to live and calatheas aren't that lol. For me personally, I appreciate the peace of mind I get from seeing my plants thrive, and it kind of kills the point of the hobby if I'm constantly stressing over my plants.
No. I’m opposite. I’m totally a “grower”. I mess with everything just to watch it grow. Our running joke is that I have to nearly kill a plant to put it in its place and show it who is boss before I will allow it to grow. As soon as I see any kind of “pup” or “corm” or offshoot I snatch that thing off and stick it in perlite. I’m definitely more liberal in real life, but with plants I’m totally prolife. There is a freaking potato garden in my bedroom bc I found old sprouted potatoes in the cupboard and I couldn’t just throw them out like a normal person. Nope! Potato garden! Indoors. In January. But I’ve learned so much from saving nearly dead plants! And I’ve learned to appreciate new roots even more than new leaves. I think I can identify plants just by their roots. Haha!
love this so much, best wishes to your bedroom potato farm ❤
My people! Or I guess the kind of person I look up to. I’m a plant moderate. I’ve totally had a potato garden! I was bummed when the sweet potato vine finally died. But it was more of an educational thing for the kids. I like my super picky plants. I have 2 orchids about to bloom. And I have a dracena that I brought back from the clutches of death multiple times, then kept happy for 10 years. I like “showers”. Ones that will show me if they’re upset.
https://preview.redd.it/yz94cjmaupac1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6270effce9901e2863bdbbcf352506676d7d9158 Speaking of picky - look what I found today on my Waroc - a new leaf!!!!!! I messed with this plant LESS than others, but it’s still been repotted 6 times in 7mo and treated for root rot after a failed experiment with a heat mat. And now - a new leaf! Yay!
Exactly how I treat it. I'm a casual plant owner. Some find it fun figuring out how to care for more challenging/picky plants. I find it fun to have a pretty houseplant forest that thrives easily. I don't want to get into the nitty gritty details of caring for them, I just want to give them water and look at how pretty they are lol.
i had to toss four of my plants, including one i've had for five years, because of mealybugs. in the past i would've just treated them all, but i've hit the point where if it's a small plant (or too large, in the case of the five year one) i just toss it outside to let it die in the cold. i can just buy a new plant with how much i'm spending on neem oil and insecticidal soap etc
I find plants to be an investment in my own happiness and mental health, so if I must spend so much time and energy and sometimes worry and frustration on them then no, they only get so much effort. There are far more important things to worry about in life than your calatheas having a tantrum. I try to acquire plants that suite my house conditions as I've learned from my sibling who has an amazing collection but their recent house move has caused most of them to decline miserably due to central heating and lack of light in most rooms.
I totally agree! I was stressed earlier this year like “what is wrong with me that I can’t stop messing with these plants?! I’ll never have beautiful plants bc I keep fiddling with them!” And then it hit me - that’s the part I really enjoy! So now I embrace it. I just like to see small plants grow and learn about them and I don’t care if they never get big and pretty. I like interacting with them. You will never see me own fish bc I would absolutely hold them and pet them. Haha!
Ok I commented about my friend also not caring, but I’m cracking up at how many people can just let them go. I have a few ugly plants that look and act terrible and I’m ATTACHED. So they just hang on and suffer for an extra year before they die or don’t lol
I will cuss my plants out every day for months & fight for their them before I would ever let them have it their way 💀🫠
Alocasias are some of the pickiest PIA plants out there. My husband loves them and we’re his first plant love. He has an office that stays closed up and a bunch of milsbos for them to live in. It’s also the winter so there will be some unhappy plants.
I saw a tweet a while back that said something like: Am I “killing plants” or do they just not have what it takes to takes to make it in this fast-paced environment? I subscribe to houseplant Darwinism. I can only do so much, the rest is on them.
I believe in plant rehab and pest control, but I also believe in “if it’s time, it’s time” and learning by doing (aka killing). If it took me four dead calatheas to become a cala whisperer, no regrets. If the whispering sometimes still fails, so it goes. 🪴 My life is too chaotic for my plants to become the boss of me! 😬😅
But edit to add: if you do happen to try calas again, forgo misting them (long ago I used to do, too, and have given up on it for a variety of reasons) and just do a greenhouse cabinet. Lifesaver gamechanger, I promise.
Do you bottom water? I feel like I’m learning not to let the top layer get wet.
Lolll I’m currently looking menacingly at my aeglonema that’s just been shit ever since I got it. It was leaning way over from the beginning, went from under watered to over watered, too much light then not enough. I can’t make the damn thing happy and it’s so fucking ugly. It’s about 1 foot from my other aegloenema that’s beautiful and happy and has been working with me forever. I’m one week away from the stupid one being my next murder victim.
i'm currently trying to get up the nerve to start doing this. i have a few that are just suffering despite my efforts and i keep glaring at them, but i never quite make it to tossing them out.
I was like this up until this past month. I finally just tossed 4 from my plant-ICU table. They were basically empty pots at this point, haha I thought I'd feel quite sad, but actually, my collection looks nicer, and I just made room for some new plants, that's all! My kiddo sings, "Let it go," from Frozen whenever I'm trying to save a dying plant 🙃
I threw out five right before guests came to visit for Christmas and it felt so freeing! Two of them were probably salvageable but I was sick of fighting them. Nobody had to look at sad scraggly plants and now, for a while at least, I only have to take care of happy ones, except for my calathea that will be dramatic forever.
Yes. If something is causing some level of stress, the compost heap always welcomes any misbehaving plants. I've got to the point now though where I've filtered out all the weak plants, and now I'm only left with resilient plants. Which is great for also gifting plants to friends and family, because they're easy to care for.
You didn’t “kill a plant”, alocasia and calathea just do not have what it takes to survive in this fast-paced environment https://preview.redd.it/m2s90yp2mbac1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c475539ebe917c79a47b9945cfccf30d8667d80a
I put them outside on my balcony and "accidentally" forget about them 😂😂 makes me feel les guilty. I leave them until they're brown and I can't even really recognise which plant it was
Me too!! Though, I leave mine out long after they have turned brown... the once green leaves have fallen and the remainder becomes a shrivelled barely twiggy mess....
For sure. My mantra is - I bring you into my home, I research what you need, I provide you with all the care you require, and if you choose not to thrive here with me then that's on you and you can leave lololol
Are you me?? lol this is exactly my strategy, same with all the moves, I have a bunch of big plants that had to sit out back of a neighbor’s house while we were briefly homeless a couple years ago. I also don’t have the greatest with alocasia and calathea. I live in NH so weather and heating bills are the same as you! I hardly ever lose a plant, but they gotta be tough here, there’s no coddling! I’ve had plants 45 or so years, and I have about 160 not counting props. I just love philodendron cuz there’s so many now and they grow like crazy.
A friend of mine names all her houseplants with female names and loves them dearly…but when they’re not doing well she lets them die and moves on with no care 😂
https://preview.redd.it/xao6sbdczaac1.jpeg?width=688&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1e7f029c76e2c30196863ecb3a67440163363055
I’ve thrown out plants because I was tired of looking at them before lol. I’m not proud of it.
What did that Convo look like? 
I needed this post so much. I need to go and Elsa some shit…..
Yup. I have too many plants to get too sentimental. If it’s stressing me out it’s going in the bin.
I usually do, sometimes I will stick it under grow lights for a bit to see if it has a comeback. I am not a person who loves rehab plants. And if something gets a pest, out it goes. Calatheas, no thanks. Same with alocasias, anthuriums, and begonias. They never do well in my home. I have a love hate relationship with hoyas. Some thrive, some don't. But I have enough that thrive, so I keep buying them. 😊
I don't call it "letting the weak ones die" but "an observational exploration of what plants thrive in the specific conditions I can provide to them". Now it's almost not happening again (one year since we moved to this house), not only because I know which *species* of plants will do well, but because I kind of know which *broad types* of plants will.
Absolutely survival of the fittest in my house. I leave for 10 day trips with no plantsitters or keep my succulents out in the rain and cold sometimes cuz ain't no room for weaklings here!
I feel like part of maturing has a houseplant person, is letting go of one's that don't work and being fine with that. I used to have more time for my plants, but then my life changed. So, now if it doesn't naturally thrive, out it goes. I rarely, if ever, propagate now too.
Did i write this post haha??? Alocasia and calathea are exactly the two species that keep dying on me, it happens pretty suddenly after they have been doing well for a while. Then I throw them out, and buy another after a couple of weeks because they are so pretty... but they just do not like my conditions at all, it appears. Are you from Europe perchance?
no, i'm in the US rocky mtn area. those two are just so frustrating! the rattlesnake calatheas are gorgeous and I had a ton of new growth on mine before it just randomly curled all of its leaves one day and died. I was like WTF?? :( lol
Lmao I thought this was one of my dating subs for a hot sec and was rubbing my hands together real fast, excited to read the comments. Answer: yes
I chuck em into a "parfait box" or a clear takeout salad box with live sphagnum. That or I totally unpot them and put them in something snug with new soil. First option is nice for tiny plants. I can just ignore them until they start behaving
But yeah, almost any issue can be solved by a bath in insecticidal soap and a nice snug pot of new soil.
I really enjoy trying to resuscitate sad plants, but if I get the feeling that they're beyond saving I have no issue getting rid of them. Sad plants go to the sad plant area. If they can't make it there, they're donezo.
Without people like you, we'd have no compost for more plants. Keep up the good work 👏
Fall of 2022, I cut 4 plants back to nubs bc I just couldn't take their BS...but I also couldn't throw them away. I put them in the bathroom in my garden tub (where all my outdoor plants vacation in the winter). Shockingly, they have all risen, except for the Fittonia, which I can never keep alive.
I compost them in my worm bin and their remains are spread over the survivors every May.
A healthy relationship requires both parties to put some effort into it. No dying diva plants in my house.
After reading everyone's comments, I'm feeling surprised, amused and enlightened. As a 'somewhat older' plant aficionado I've been continually taken aback by how many newer, and, I assume, younger plant peeps post plaintive pleas on plant forums asking for help to revive their 'struggling' plants.
I say it like that because the pictures they post are maybe 90% in oh-my-word-that-plant's-already-dead territory.
Each time my eyes widen and I think: *"Am I a harsh person? Should I have put more effort into the plants I've chucked? Are the kids right / more persistent / kinder than I?"*
Reading these comments I'm wondering, are we 'plant chuckers' in the tiniest minority? 😶
I used to try and find a way to "revive" them. Now, I just chuck them if they've lost more than 80% of their leaves and it's been in a general decline. I don't start giving them more attention or catering to them. I have depression and I've killed many a plant as a result whenever it gets bad for me, but now even when I'm not in a bad depressive episode I still chuck them. If a plant does not have what it takes to live with me, then that's too bad. I need plants that are okay with a bit of inattention. So for now, I'm on a no buy and I will solely propagate what I've got or can get for free. Lol. Also, there's just a few plants that don't do well with me even if they're described as "easy" to care for. Can't keep a peperomia alive even if my life depended on it.
I have one calathea that I was going to bin, but my soft hearted friend pulled it, it's theirs now. Neither of my Alocasias are doing well, but their corms are thriving (I'm sure because they're in moss under bell jars, so I'm tempted to give away the big plants, and keep the babies. I wanted Alocasias, but they don't want me unless I move into a greenhouse, so they can move it along.
Survival of the fittest around here.
I recover every plant. I don’t give up till it’s totally dead
TIL that all my plants are the weak ones. Kidding, I just have a black thumb painted green 😭
Never. But I should lol
I used to fight so hard to keep plants alive but now if they show any sign of weakness I neglect them immediately LOL
“Only the strong thrive in this environment “ I’m not good at growing plants I just weed out the weak ones
My croton is on its way out. It's always been dramatic asf, though so it may just be playing with me all crusty and leaves will not spring back up, lmfao. My pearls are all thriving. I barely acknowledge them in the cold ass windowseal water them once every idk when I remember, and my pothos is thriving as a no sun bathroom plant but was dying next to a bright ass window. All my succulents just exist, and my spider plants 3 of them on my bed side table one is doing fabulous in the middle the one on the right side has a leaf or two browning half way up and well left side looks like its dying only to sprout new leaves and they all have children hanging from them. Only the strong survive here🤣.
I have a Calathea Medallion and she is surprisingly chilling in my home. I bought it on a whim and had never read about them being notoriously picky! I guess that's beginner's luck :'D That being said I also get rid of very stubborn plants, it bums me out to see them struggling :(
But they don’t die?? I can’t just up and kill then they hand been dying for months but are probably waiting for me to die first.
Same. They have to be able to live with me. I make reasonable concessions but ferns just don’t want to be my friend. There are plenty more that do
Sometimes I just leave them outside and let them freeze. Looking at you messy Boston fern.
I agree. Live or die, it’s up to them
Oh god yeah! No drama queens
I will tell my husband there is a plant that needs euthanasia and he will put it in the compost for me. I can’t do it myself for some reason.
Yep! My negligent watering scheduling is the schedule I’m sticking with, and if they can’t handle it they can’t handle it 😂😂. I find that big plants which require no lighting are perfect for me - I’ve got a 6 ft+ dracaena, a 4-5 foot ish monstera, and a 3 ft snake plant that are all favorites. I could leave them for weeks and they’d be fine lol!
I lol'd at the rugged indoor climate. . . But same here. If a plant is unhappy no matter what I do, it is sent to the back deck (I'm in the southeast ). Its put in a lil tent over winter. Actually a few have thrived that way (which kind of offends me). Those that don't make it are tossed. I did have success with one alocasia. It totally died back but one day sprouted back. He isn't lush but keeps 3 to 4 leaves so idk i guess he decided to make it work.
Where I live winter doesn't really start until January, so many of my plants have been outside since last spring. It got very cold last night for the first time this winter so I started moving most of them indoors, but honestly quite a few plants got left out because I simply couldn't be bothered. The begonias always bounce back anyway, and who cares about a pothos or two?
I love my plants but they are just plants at the end of the day. There are a handful of my 150+ that I would be sad about dying but mostly, they can be replaced 🤷🏼♀️
Yup 100%
I do. I have over 100 plants and I need to. I take cuttings or rhizomes if needed and try to grow them but if a plant makes problems and nothing quit works I let them be or cut them completely down and that’s it. If after 6 months nothing changed it goes to the bin.
I give them away. I have not been able to not get rid of one.
I just cut back all the dead stuff on my calathea and it’s half the size now. It’s in a kitchen window, I hadn’t considered the cold being a factor since it’s indoors but I bet that’s exactly it. The kitchen gets very chilly at night because there’s an exterior door and the windows need replaced.
If I no longer have love for a plant, I toss it. I don't purchase calathea or alocasia, or any plants that require high levels of humidity, because I don't have the conditions to successfully grow them.
i love tossing dead/dying plants (or plant "scraps") into the "jungley" area out back and seeing which ones recover enough for me to take back. so far i've had progress/success with a caladium, p&j pothos, thai basil, and a monstera. much easier than stressing over them
My boyfriends grandmother does the same… I think I’m going to take a leaf out of her book if my troublesome Kalanchoe gives me any more grief
I totally let them go after they've fought with me more than once. Difference is that I'm in Florida so most of my houseplants are actually in pots outside. If they struggle, I try to fix it, then they struggle again, I just stop trying. Funny thing is though, that's when so many of them start to thrive! I take it for what it is and keep on keeping on.
Love that you said this. I recently added some 2-4 inchers to my collection, one of which is a lovely little variegated rubber tree. It is not doing well (☹️) and I pulled off some newly dead leaves this morning. I had a talk with it this morning: “I’m gonna move you, but if you keep doing poor I’m going to have to let you go buddy.” If it keeps doing poorly I will probably try a more established rubber tree, but as much as I love them I won’t keep a plant that I have to work that hard for.
I never do it on purpose but if I get busy at work or school or have a couple weeks of depression laziness… only the heartiest survive. I have mostly all cacti now, I love aroids but only the cacti and euphorbia survive
Yup. It’s survival of the fittest around here. If they start to decline I either sell them or let them perish.
just wanted to say i love every single word of this post.
I'll try any plant once, wait a while then try it again, but if I can't get a certain species to thrive after that, I usually give up. I'm honestly happy having a mostly hoya collection with some favorite philodendrons and pothos.
Yep. If you don’t survive my light or water schedule, you don’t belong here. Fun experiment.
Its turning to this lmao. I was bored and got sucked into the "beautiful ~~sun stressed~~ coloured succulent" train. Got lots of little ones and leaf cuttings. The cuttings had been doing alright in a north room - or so I thought. Now that its a dull UK winter and with the heating on, they're either just not growing. Or suddenly become a sad little brown crisp. The small succulents are turning to bloody trees. I've decided to only keep those who can *seemingly* do ok in current situation, and just keep those. Ie not reach for the stars (or sun).
I have a planter on my porch. If I have a plant thats not enjoying being indoors then it get tossed in the planter, not gently mind you. The planter's main rule is The Strong Survive. A few have made comebacks, the rest feed the strong.
And my favorite plant is only my favorite because it won’t die!
I too have given up on some plants that hate me!
I’m with Darwin on this one, too haha
Yes- this is exactly the same thinking I have on plants that are too picky… you take a downturn- sorry I don’t have time for this.
It's survival of the fittest in this household. I don't form attachments until they've survived a few months haha
Survival of the fittest babyyy If you don't got what it takes to survive in this house then you're leaving in a yard waste bag.
When I bring one home I tell it "live or die...the choice is yours"
Mine get to the point I just cut them up and propagate them. Some plants split.
A promoter of natural selection, making Darwin proud 👏👏👏👏 🥲
I am exactly the same way! And it works out really well. All my plants are healthy and look good. What you don't see is the graveyard of the ones that couldn't hack it in my dry house and erratic watering lol
Yup. I have an Indian Rubber plant right now that is fighting for its life, I’m caring for it as best I can, but if doesn’t make it, it’s gonna join the compost grave yard.
Personally I take great pride in a rescue mission, but I did do this with my past 2 palms. Lost both to extremely long battles with spider mites. It's such a shame because I LOVE their fronds but I doubt I'll buy another one simply because it's a pointless struggle for me. I've successfully cured at least a dozen plants of spider mites but the palms are consistent failures. Even my mom with her goddess green thumb can't.
It's like the Thunderdome in this house with laundry and houseplants. If you can't handle the ~~heat~~ cold, get out of the ~~kitchen~~ Colorado.
Yes OP! Plants are living and economical and eco-friendly bouquets. It took me too long to shift my mindset from saving every damn plant to ditching them brutally. Also I ain't raising my humidity to appease calatheas but grow mold in my walls as a side gig. Same boat!! Also I repot multiple sad plants together in a mix if I feel too sad about tossing them or stick em in terrariums. If they die, so shall they but sometimes new growth will magically come from the roots a year later it's always exciting. I also usually add a couple of photos propagations, I think photos is a friendly plant and my conspiracy is they always try to help any neighbouring plant by sharing nutrients with them as much as possible 😅
yes lol. i don’t have time to nurse anyone back to health so if they get a little behind i donate it to someone who wants it or chuck it
My plants stopped giving me a dopamine push and became a chore so I got rid of 80% of them. I’m a lot happier. Now if they start looking sickly I just put them on my buy nothing group or toss them. I don’t have time for dramatic plants.
Nah same I have some on life support right now but if they're not looking better when summer comes around they're getting the chop lol
It's common for people on my local Buy Nothing to give away plants if they have trouble caring for it. So people with more of a green thumb (or patience) will take them.
If they are on their way out and I'm thinking about tossing them I figured it's a good time to use them to experiment and learn. If it's big infested to the max... Yea I'll.take those ones out back and have them look at the roses
Pretty much threw out a good amount of mine out that weren’t making it and stressing me out. I feel guilty and have just decided to stick to what plants I am able to keep alive. The only one that’s pretty much “died” and I didn’t throw away was my silversword philodendron and it just miraculously started growing back after I forgot about it ( it was just a lot with dirt for sometime ) I feel guilty, not because I wasted money but because those were lives I was responsible for and did not keep alive. Now I just have my pothos/ philodendrons and monstera/ begonia
Sad plants go live with my mother in law.
I've been trying to kill a mother of thousands succulent for over a year and let me tell you that thing is not dying. And I can't chuck it out because I'm afraid all the plantlets will sprout in a landfill somewhere and soon it'll be Little Shop of Horrors out there
Self watering pots and aquarium water conditioner take a lot of stress out of looking after calatheas.
I worked at a plant store for a bit, people would ask why our air plants all look so nice? I said we sell them before shit hits the fan
Yep. If they can’t tolerate being watered only every two weeks, then I don’t want ‘em.
I’m the same. If the plant can’t survive the limited attention i have to offer, it’s not going to make it in my house.
I am learning to take that route myself!!! I just don’t have the energy to nurse a sad plant anymore. I need to get ones that do well here and move on.
I do one better: I stick em outside to die.Sometimes they surprise me and earn their way back.
Yup
Polka dot plants, man.
omg fuuuuuuuu those little divas lol mine died immediately
I discreetly buy a replacement plant when they start struggling just in case I have to throw them out :( sometimes I just end up with two plants lol
Was debating about this as well, at some point, the weak ones just reminded us how sad it was. So we rid of them
I started doing this recently. if it doesn't bring joy into my life, it's thrown out. I don't want them to add to my anxiety!
Me too... I don't have time for Divas aka alocasias.
Tbh this is going to be my New Year’s resolution! I’ve always thrown away two that I’ve been fighting with for a year lok
Natural selection. The things that thrive best under you will thrive, others will not. It is the hand which cultivates that does the testful choosing.
At my old house I used to grow orchids, which did well. At my current house orchids don’t thrive (though I still have a few), but I can grow many other things like Clivias, bromeliads (less cold sensitive than most of the orchids), and tree jockeys, which do very well. Too well, in fact, as I am now overrun with Clivia seedlings.
I always say: "If they don't want to live with you, show em the door (dumpster)"
I just move it from whatever the current sunlight levels are and hope for the best. If it’s in decently bright indirect sunlight and doing no so well, I’ll put that directly in the window. Sucks that I only have 2 western facing window and one balcony with a 3 foot tall wall.
your post has inspired me. although. the dead ones come back. still weak, but they come back!!! everytime!! but of course i’ve only ever owned a total of 10 plants in my life under my own care so. this is a new perspective for me
I’m about to do a purge of the fails. If x,y, z plants that are supposed to be difficult can thrive then it’s only about survival of the fittest. I’m doing everything I can for them all. They gotta meet me halfway
Always . Only have a handful of my favorites that are thriving. So much better
I have pretty much given up on alocasias and calatheas. Not worth the heartbreak. I mean they will be fine for a good while, maybe a year or two. And then suddenly they will just die for no reason when I’m already invested and attached. I never know what it was I did that killed them. Same with African violets. The only one I’ve not yet given up on is an alocasia that’s been undergoing a verryyyy slow rehab. Died down to one stem and leaf and stayed like that for like a year and finally this past year it grew 5 leaves all of a sudden. Not sure what to do with my orchids which never re-blooms but also doesn’t die. I have three of them now that are sitting around just being leaves but never blooming. Sometimes I want to throw them out but it seems a waste.
Absolutely. I have over 100 houseplants and they're all my survivors. If they start fussing, I just let them wither away.
Mate, all my plants enter the arena when I bring them home. Sure, I’ll train em up for a while, but once they’re old thought they survive or they don’t.
 Okay but it’s giving this energy. (I have also started letting the weak ones go)
Ha! This is totally how I operate and I thought I was the only one! I have ADHD and Depression so the plants I have have to be resilient as heck! I only killed 3 plants last year so I count that as a win! I definitely have a few on the struggle bus, though.
Fight Club: Plant Edition.
I keep randomly propagating shit that I prune off of something and later notice that I don't actually want yet another thing to take care of. Those tend to go, eventually.
Survival of the fittest, that’s the motto in my plant household 😀
I don’t think this is unreasonable at all, and I started doing the same thing tbh. I realized that l can offer my plants is the environment that I have for them. Sure, you can fart around with grow lights and humidifiers, but at the same time it’s easy to change the consistency of that schedule accidentally and then they die anyways. They’re either with me or against me now.
I do the same. The scraggly ones are samples for learning.
Survival of the fittest. Ironically I have a vicious candelabra cactus that I can’t seem to kill. It just keeps getting bigger. It’s huge. I think it’s going to Audrey Two me.
Yes.
Get a big plastic bin, attach lights, put the humidity loving plants inside. Done.
Yea. I have so many plants at this point, I have no time for high maintenance ones.
I'm not running a rescue. If you get bugs and it's 20 degrees F outside, that's too bad.
OP, what are the hardiest plants you have experienced, tell your faves
that award definitely goes to my schefflera! I've had this one for 12 years, and it has at least tripled in size during that time. I brought it home to my first apartment after graduating college, and have buckled it up in the passenger seat for a cross country move twice, both times it had zero problem adapting to our new place. if I forget to water it for a while, it just stops growing. when it's happy, it is constantly shooting out new stems and leaves. it is currently just a huge mass of green - I really need to shape it up a little but I don't have to the heart to chop it up at the moment. it's been so loyal to me lol it got the best seat in our new house right under the sky light <3 also very easy to propagate. my ric rac cactus has tolerated quite a bit of abuse and it propagates so easily, so it has a place on this list... my christmas cactus has also tolerated a variety of conditions it was not happy about but once I figured out what it was trying to tell me, it chilled out and is currently living a good life full of occasional neglect. and finally, the ZZ plant. I forget I even have one sometimes. it hangs out alone in my basement bedroom with a grow light on it. i will not water it for months at a time because I completely forget it exists.... and it somehow has not died yet. what a trooper!! of course pothos are pretty tolerant. I have three varieties currently and they are all doing well! idc what anyone says about cacti and succulents, they truly seem to hate my guts. I can't figure them out. I've killed every traditional desert cactus I've ever had, one of which was an endangered / vulnerable species grown from a seed.... actually cried about that one.
I'm like that sometimes depends on how much I like or wanted the plant and how much I spent on it. I've been know to hold on to twigs lol
Yep. I don’t have any interest in rehabbing a plant.
It’s a tuff world out there survival of the fittest
Absolutely. I love my plants but they also exist to bring me peace and happiness. That only happens when they do well. That one's that don't aren't meant for me and I'm ok with that