During this unprecedented time of social isolation, almost everything feels different. Last night I attended Boston’s Annual Bunny Bar Hop in honor of Good Friday, by video! At the grocery store, we line up 6 feet apart and wait our turn to enter and there is still a limited supply of toilet paper. When you do go outdoors everyone is wearing masks and no one stops to chat. When I pause outside, I am noticing that despite our current Pandemic, Spring has come. It turns out that Mother Earth is rotating at the same speed as before COVID and we in the Northern Hemisphere have just passed midway in our tilt back towards the sun. We have roughly 10 more weeks to gain light before we start tilting away again. Everywhere around me I am treated to the signs that the plants are awake and racing to sprout, spread and flower.
I really love to have house plants and many of my plants have been with me for years, the ones that stay are very resilient. Let’s just say that I do not over tend my plants. I give them the space and water and nutrients that they need, every once in a while I give them a hair cut and remove dead leaves. When appropriate I rotate the hardy plants outside for some fresh air in spring and summer. The joy from seeing a plant flower or sprout is hard to explain, but it feels really good to add water to dirt and then be rewarded with greens and flowers. Now back to the Aloe, this week I noticed something extraordinary. My Mama Aloe for the first time in 20 years is about to bloom. She has been kind to me and my family over the years, giving us countless leaves to treat our kitchen burns and sunburns. She was small when I first brought her to my apartment in Brookline in 1999. She was a medium sized plant when we moved to Owl Hill. Roughly 5 years ago I moved my glass oval table under one of our dining room windows. I put Mama Aloe on the left side, as I felt there she would get the right amount of sun. 3 years ago, while eating dinner and staring at the plants I realized something was different, at first I though someone had rearranged the plants as Mama Aloe was clearly in the middle of the table. I realized that indeed, the mother shoot was in the center of the table but her pot was still over to the left. She had migrated out of her pot and was leaning on the jade and taking the best sunlight in the center of the window. All the plants continued to vie for the best spot in the sun. The result is a web of aloe, jade and vines as each plant supports and competes for growth.
There are plants throughout our house. Each window has it’s own micro environment and the plants provide backdrops for many of our art creations. Cultivating plants is an art. Much of the art is in showing restraint, in releasing control and allowing the plant to go through its natural cycle. Then with just a little bit of encouragement and support they thrive. During this time of collective stress, one idea to help us all cope, is to grow a plant. If you can only have one, consider planting Aloe, the leaves will be invaluable and with patience, maybe in 20 years you may get to see a bloom.
