It’s no secret. The houseplant craze has got me, too. Even if working where I did hadn’t acted as a catalyst, I’m sure it would have come one day or another; this strange urge to hoard plants, this irresistible pull to fill my apartment, nestled in the cold, chilly rockies, with lush foliage. It started last summer, when there was nothing better to do but buy plants and care for them to a weird extent. I brought them in and out of the balcony on chilly nights and even covered them with loose garbage bags so that my cat wouldn’t try anything funny. Looking at those plants, watching them flower and grow and provide me with fruit and vegetables, was intensely fulfilling. At the time it was just a simple pleasure.
I had no idea that my innocently started plant journal would grow exponentially over the next year.
I’m sure others have gone through a similar experience. You buy a snake plant or a ZZ perhaps, something easy to take care of. Then when you inevitably go a month without killing it, you decide you can handle something else. And so the collection grows - and the plants do too, prompting you to buy new, bigger pots, and then suddenly you have smaller pots that need filling… Well, better go see if the local florist has anything new.
Everything came to a head for me a couple months ago when I decided to try my hand at The plant. The one everyone seems to want. It’s in commercials, movies, and tv shows, sitting pretty somewhere in the background. It’s massive leaves decorate tropical floral arrangements, making you think of paradise. Variegated or rare versions of it can go for thousands of dollars, and that’s just for a cutting! Some call it a Swiss Cheese plant, and some know it as a Monstera.
I wish I could say where the desire for this plant comes from. Like other sought-after houseplants, all I can guess is that it’s the unique and large leaves it produces, which are satisfying for any houseplant owner to see slowly unfurl. Aesthetically, the clean curved lines on the leaves are pleasing to look at and give off the ultimate jungle vibe. And it isn’t a particularly tough plant to care for; give it the right amount of sun and water and like anything, it will grow. It has its preferences, which I learned from a monstera facebook group: “no touching the new leaves!” they cry to us naive newcomers, “and no misting!” (I’ve seen both of these points contested, but I’m not taking any risks here.)
Whatever it may be, when I saw one for the first time, I bought it in a heartbeat. It lives in a plant stand on my desk, which looks a bit silly, but I have a cat. (Not only is the Monstera not cat-safe, my kitty Maia is also not plant-safe, so it’s better that they keep away from each other.) It has quickly turned into my all-time favourite plant. When new leaves come out, it’s the first thing I go to check on in the morning. After watering, it “sweats” for a day or two, and pretty little water droplets cling to the ends and bottoms of the leaves. It angles itself slowly to face the windows, and casts dappled light and shadow all over the room in late afternoon. It makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, despite not growing it from seed. For most of us, just keeping something alive is success enough.
-Juls