• Fashion is about what you wear. Style is about how you live your life. ~Ralph Lauren

Monday, October 20, 2008

Puke Plant


I was admiring the nice green leaves of this plant today as I watered it. I didn't think I'd still have the opportunity to water it after I nearly killed it with my stupidity a while back. I bought this little plant 3 years ago after I moved into my new office. At that point I had successfully killed any plant I've ever had. And it seemed this one was almost no exception...
In my excitement of being a new plant mommy I made sure to water it (at least once a week) and I had heard coffee was good for plants. (I don't remember where or why, but I heard that) So I always dumped the last three sips of cold coffee in my plant each day. Seems inconsequential right?
Wrong.
One day I walked into my office and the entire room spelled like vomit. I gagged and ran out. I couldn't figure out why it smelled. I brought others in (all holding their breath). Finally, we figured out it was the plant. It turns out that coffee IS good for plants, it's just the cream and sugar that causes funk to grow in the soil and to make it smell foul.
A few years and few new pots later, the Puke Plant is doing beautifully. It really has proven that I might have a "green" thumb after all.
Just as long as I remember that it takes its coffee black.

2 comments:

C said...

That almost made me cry.
We had that happen in the lobby at work...people were dumping their leftover coffee in the drain grid of the water cooler, and guess what? One day all of America smelled like vomit, and we couldn't find the source for days...
I will try to remember to dump leftover carafe into my plants. I bet it has something to do with the antioxidants in coffee.

Beth said...

That is too funny!