I’ll start with a story of my own:
For several years we had this Shefflera plant in the living room of our apartment. I didn’t particularly like this plant - it grew out of control and took up what seemed to me like the best real estate in the whole damn tiny apartment. Plus, all plants are my wife’s thing - every plant I touch dies almost before my eyes. I can’t tell you how many Ficus trees I have destroyed with my touch of death.
Anyway, one day my wife went out of town for a few weeks, and the Shefflera started to die. Really die, as in several dozen leaves were all over the floor every time I came home.
Finally, upon closer inspection, I discovered that there were these little bugs all over it, living in tiny little webs. After speaking to a gardening guru friend, I was instructed to take nail polish and swab all remaining healthy stalks and leaves, of which there were about twenty. While doing this, I started talking to the plant. I basically said “OK, if you survive this and get me out of the doghouse I will surely be in if you die while Mommy is away, I swear I will set you free.”
Sure, enough, the thing pulled through. As luck would have it, we moved into our house about six months after that, and I planted it in the small yard out back. Six years later, and it’s a monster. It’s about six feet tall, has tree sized stalks, and is indestructible, having survived several dogs and drunken people stumbling into it over the years. Strange as this may seem, it appears that it saved a century cactus and a rosemary bush living nearby, as they have both flourished since it was planted next to them. I find myself speaking to it from time to time while I’m in the back yard, something that I wisely have kept to myself. I call her Sarah.
So, what’s your “plant emancipation” story?