WhatNutt Notes: Recylcing My Mother's Day Plants

Some gifts keep on giving. Last year my husband presented me with some small potted calla type lillys on Mother's Day. They were in a 4" pot, with a colorful foil wrap and very pretty. The blooms lasted for several weeks, and the leaves stayed pretty through the summer. They made a happy center piece on the table. I kept the soil moist and in the fall as the leaves turned brown, I cut off everything and put the pot on a shelf in the garage. Out of sight, out of mind, there it sat, until last week, when we cleaned the garage. Thinking he would throw the soil into the garden and the pot in the trash, my good man picked up the pot and discovered tiny green shoots barely coming out of the soil. Into the house it went. I hadn't considered that the lillys were bulbs and could grow more than one season. It was a delightful discovery.

Today for my early mother's day present, sweet husband bought me a new cobalt blue pot to replace the ugly plastic green one the lillys came in. Of course, one pot wasn't enough of a gift in his mind, so I also got to pick out a new pot for the prayer plant. The prayer plant has been with us for 31 years. Yes, you read that right, THIRTY ONE years. It too was a Mother's Day gift, the same year our second son was born. That is how I know how old it is, without the birth of a child reference I would have long ago forgotten the plant's age age. (I can barely remember my own) It too came in a 4" pot. There were many times in the first few years, I almost tossed it, because the leaves would die away, except one or two and then it would revive and send up new curled leaves that unfurled in all their spotted splendor. The leaves fold up a night, like they are saying their prayers, and then open up to the light each morning. It also has tiny white blooms that come up each on a single stem. This plant has made every move with us and I've become rather attached. It was probably 5 years old when I finally figured out how to keep it moist, not wet, and it began to grow more than six leaves at a time. Twice it has been repotted, and once about ten years ago it was so big, I actually divided it and shared half with a friend. It has been full and big, filling a 10" pot nicely for the last decade. In March it started looking very droopy, and the leaves began to go brown. I started to worry, it wasn't looking very healthy. Then I noticed new curled leaves coming up in the middle, so I cut off all the dying leaves and watched as plant rebirthed itself all through April. Not yet as big as it was, but surely getting there, now seemed a good time for a new container.

It was a lovely afternoon to be outside. With potting soil, and some rocks for the lining the bottom of the containers I went to work. And I'm very happy with the results.