Peace, Luv and Spider Plants

Raise your hand if you had a spider plant hanging in your dorm room or first apartment.

Searching for plants to liven up our rediscovered patio, I followed a friend's advice and cruised by Lowe's early one morning.  Practically everything was on sale, but not the bursting-at-the seams spider plants.  Logic dictated I should pass them by, but memories won out.

I grew up with houseplants everywhere and opulent vegetable, annual and perennial gardens outside. My mom was a farmer's daughter and everything she touched turned green and usually produced some vegetable.  It was a little intimidating but I tried my hand at houseplants sometime during my college years.  Spider plants were turning up everywhere I looked so they were my first pick, too. Amazingly, they lived through those days of dry, forced air and minimal light for nine months at a time, then got a boost when they followed me home to my parents' place for the summer.

My goal was for my plant to have babies.  Other people's plants had cute little streamers of green with spritely clusters of tiny leaves and little white flowers, but mine refused to propagate.  Abject failure.

Well, I've got them now:

Bunches of babies--all I ever hoped for, my role as a plant nurturer is complete.

More plant-related history--Uncle Grumpy has been an entrepreneur all his life and began his multiple sales careers by selling stationery and houseplants door to door.  According to family lore, he hacked apart his mom's houseplants to re-pot for sale to unsuspecting neighbors and went around the block knocking on doors, perfecting his sales spiel.  Who wouldn't buy from this cutie pie?

King of the Wild Florida Frontier