In my younger years I started off every New Year with a list of resolutions that I spent the next twelve months breaking. My intentions were good and my efforts at the start of every year were quite admirable. But as the year went by, I would slack off a little more each week until I no longer even cared to bother. So I’m obviously not very good at that.

As the years progressed, I changed my style; instead of promising I would do something, I promised I would try to do something, thus began the possible resolutions. For example, one year instead of resolving I would exercise more, I promised myself that I would try to exercise more. So I didn’t necessarily promise to do it, only that I’d try. And if by trying it became a steady habit, all the better.

The funny thing is that this new way of making resolutions produced some wonderful results. Most of the things I promised I would try to do, I did – try to do them and actually do them. One major accomplishment was kicking a bad habit: I promised I’d try to quit smoking and I did – I tried to quit smoking and I did quit. Eventually. Maybe not that particular year, or the next year, but eventually. Trying to keep a resolution is undemanding and flexible. Not only do you lift the burden (and guilt) of breaking a promise since you’re not actually promising to do it, only that you’ll try, but you don’t even have to commit to a particular time frame. “I will try to quit smoking this year and if I don’t, I’ll try again next year” You can carry the (possible) resolution forward to another year and try again.

Cool.

Anyhow, in this last Hydro Log for 2008, I’m going to share some of the things that I promise I will try to do in 2009, so I can be a better person, feel good about myself, yadda yadda yadda. But instead of making a list of all my (possible) resolutions, many of which have nothing to do with my houseplant hobby, I will only include the ones that involve my plants and this website.

So, here goes...


(Possible) Resolutions For 2009


I resolve to try and:


...inspect my plants more often.

I tend to slack off on this and my plants become very vulnerable to pest invasions, some of which could be avoided, others that could have been eliminated if caught in the early stages. In the past twelve months I’ve dealt with three spider mite infestations (that are easy to deal with in hydroculture) and have had to throw out six plants that were plagued by mealybug (only nuclear weapons would have annihilated these pests). Perhaps if I’d checked my plants regularly for problems, I could have lost only 1 or 2 plants to mealybug instead of 6. I hope I’ve learned my lesson.

This will avoid what happened to the mealybug-infested plants that I mention above. These evil pests were brought home on a Cycas Revoluta (Sago Palm) that I did not inspect – at all - before purchasing. This careless act rocked my plant world. How? Well, up until the past year, I’d never, ever had to deal with mealybug, not in all my 20 years of houseplant growing. Really. I considered myself lucky to have evaded this horror. And now? Ugh. Now I live in fear. I fear that the ‘evil ones’ are around here somewhere. Lurking. Watching. Plotting.

I have four hydrometers at home that I hardly ever check, which I should because our winters (in collaboration with our heating systems) can produce some awfully dry days. My humidity-loving plants hate me for not checking the hydrometers. And they double hate me when I finally check but do nothing to increase humidity that the hydrometers tell me has dropped to desert levels. And they would triple hate me if they knew that I have a humidifier (stored in some closet) that would easily solve this problem. I’m obviously an insensitive plant owner. Now I have guilt.

I have this terrible habit of tossing out new plants that do not perform as well as expected within a certain period of time, even though I know that they need an adjustment period, which varies from plant to plant. I don’t know how I became this impatient. Maybe I have too many plants and can’t keep up with all of them. Maybe I’m just heartless.

I tend to take my easygoing Tillandsias for granted. Even though I know they need to be soaked on a particular day for a few hours to hydrate properly because they’re getting quite thirsty, I (purposely?) neglect this responsibility for at least a few more days. Why? I don’t know; there’s no good reason. I probably expect them to tolerate the mistreatment, which they always do. Despite my inconsideration, they continue to grow happily without any complaints. I should be ashamed of myself for taking for granted their good nature. Ashamed.

I’m not much of a sympathy purchaser but I do bring home a substandard plant now and then, mainly because it’s something I’ve wanted for a long time. Most of the time it turns out okay; once in a while it doesn’t. The discounted, slightly unhealthy Cycas Revoluta (Sago Palm) was infested by mealybugs that I failed to notice, which in turn ended up infesting a few other healthy plants at home. This is an example of a not okay ending.

I never fail to notice yellow or dying leaves, or dead flowers; I just fail to remove them in a timely manner. The plants in question sometimes end up looking untidy and unattractive for a couple of weeks, until I finally clean them up. My plants suffer from low self-esteem. It’s sad.

I don’t always feed properly. It’s not because I don’t know how. And it’s certainly not because I don’t have what I need on hand. I just don’t feel like making individual recipes for individual plants. Instead, I apply a general method: my entire plant kingdom gets fed every 2 to 3 weeks during the active growing season with an all-purpose fertilizer that is diluted to half strength. Or they don’t get fed at all for over a month, sometimes longer. Several plants are demanding to be fed less; others are howling that they’re starving. I say “That’s how things work around here; deal with it”. I should try to feed more responsibly but I think this resolution might just remain at the trial period for a long time to come. I expect a revolution at some point.

I always start new plants from cuttings - and almost always end up tossing them out at some point. I don’t seem to have the ability to wait for small plants to root and get to be big plants. I am very impatient with this and usually end up buying a full-grown specimen. I will try to give them a chance to grow.

All the cool kids have a blog. Even the ‘uncool’ ones do. So why don’t I? Fear of commitment, that’s why. If I start one, I actually have to (gulp) dedicate time to it; time that I don’t have enough of. This resolution will require some serious trying.

I wish I had time to write more articles for my website; it’s something that I really enjoy. With our upcoming move, among other things, 2009 promises to be a very busy year and I worry that I will fall behind on my Water Roots site. But this is a resolution that I will try very hard to keep. Very hard.

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