After about ten days of touring, when I returned home, the first thing that caught my eye was the two pots of Persian red grass that had withered into dried plum vegetables. Thinking back to their limp appearance when they first arrived home, after division, repotting, and pruning, the stems finally became strong, growing lush purple-red leaves. I happily held it, letting the thorns on the leaves caress my cheeks. In the first half of the tour, left unattended, they just withered, but after watering them at home, they quickly regained vitality. I then gained full confidence in caring for them in the second half of the tour. Unexpectedly, they couldn't withstand the hot summer days, not only did all the leaves wrinkle together, even the roots began to turn black. I had to trim off the dead branches, send the roots to the plant ICU area at home, supplemented with root rot medicine, hoping for a glimmer of hope.
The situation of the three pots of wrinkled-leaved cold water flowers was also very bad. Although two of them still had green stems, the leaves had turned into dried plum vegetables, lifeless. Before leaving, they had already sprouted many new shoots, all of which had turned gray and brittle, leaving only one by the window that seemed intact, but many brown spots appeared on the leaves, like mold, so I decided to cut them all off today. At this moment, they are in the ICU together with the Persian red grass, looking as bare as cancer patients.
The Chinese cabbage still did not grow as before, not sure of the reason, but the seedlings had started to turn yellow and age, so I decisively stir-fried them with winter melon, red pepper, and salted duck leg meat, very delicious, not a waste. The chives were also very thin and weak, judging that peat soil should not be used to grow chives, as it does not retain water at all, and should not be grown in a stuffy glass balcony. So today at noon, I stir-fried them all to eat, soaked the remaining roots in water, replanted them with new soil, and transplanted them into those fragile small plastic flower pots purchased online, placing them in front of the kitchen window one by one. It was a lesson learned, I should pay attention to the soil in the future. Chive scrambled eggs are very fragrant and delicious.
This time, I finally stood in Guangzhou because high-speed rail tickets were expensive, so I spent about 20 hours sitting in a sleeper car on the way back. I was thinking about what plants to recommend to the plant killer Su, and I thought the bat flower would be very suitable for her, so I bought it to see if it was easy to care for. As a result, it was out of control, and I bought a bunch of beautiful tropical plant seedlings. After returning home, I was busy, trying to revive the dying sick plants on one hand, and welcoming the new seedlings in and out on the other, potting, repotting, and checking their preferred growing environment. Although I spent the whole day running around at home, it was very therapeutic.
Observing plants often taught me to observe myself, to learn how to prune my relationships with others, and make my own stems strong. Plants need time, and I also need time, so it seems like I slowly learned to live not under the gaze of the outside world, but to become an anxious yet beautiful bonsai, understanding what true sunlight and water are for me.
I forgot to mention the pot of originally well-growing velvet caladium, which experienced a disaster of high temperatures, didn't die, but the new leaves grew excessively to absorb moisture from the air, turning yellow, with weak stems, and absorbing nutrients from the main stem, so today I also trimmed the new leaves. Growing excessively is worse than not growing at all. Many things in life are like this, seemingly grasping something, but it's actually just emptiness, meaningless.
In the midst of busyness, I saw the caladium sprouting side branches and new small leaves, the movements were very cute, so I took a picture, hoping they will grow strong in the future.