I remember many years ago, in the early 1960s, my mother bought a houseplant. I was very young. I don’t think I’d ever heard the term houseplant. I didn’t realize that you could buy plants and have them in the house. Plants grew outside.
I remember asking what kind of plant it was, and my mother said it was a split leaf philodendron. That stuck with me because it was so silly. I knew what split meant. I knew what a leaf was, but I’d never heard of philodendron before. Those words together didn’t make sense.
My mom was great at many things, but houseplants were not one of them. Apparently that gene skipped a generation because her mother could grow plants. I don’t remmber what happened to that poor Monstera. I remember it being there for a while and then one day it wasn’t there. Now I own one.
I apparently didn’t get the memo that a Monstera deliciosa was required if you were going to call yourself a plant collector. I have since corrected that situation. As I stood in line waiting to check out, new plant in hand, I remembered my Mom and her adventure with a split leaf philodendron and I smiled.
I’ll keep you posted.
