Ep 146 Money Tree-Houseplants in Duress
Sat, Feb 03, 2024, 12:08 PM • 10:44
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
plants, growing, diana, Sebzda, garden, tree, bereavement, pots, learned, money, mary, avocado tree, dilemmas, water, indoor plants, jeans, ripples, roots, mary stone, garden, nature, inspiration
SPEAKERS
Mary Stone
Mary Stone 00:00
Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary Stone and welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries. It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.
Mary Stone 00:25
Hello there, it's Mary Stone on the screen porch. What a beautiful, glorious morning I woke to with a dusting of snow coating the branches and plant services like confectionery sugar coating the winter escape. It felt magical to walk amongst it, and then it all melted. And we are snowless as we speak, but still a beautiful day.
Mary Stone 00:49
Thanks to those who reached back after last week's chat about the Special Sedum and Succulent Gardens. I heard from Jim Rimim: Nice piece, Mary. That was a special moment, and thanks for documenting it for us. You're amazing. My comeback: I love being part of your garden, and I'm sure you are growing more beautiful things. Karen and Jim are now in a new zone and meeting a whole new family of plants. I've got a lot to learn, Jim said. There's always much to learn in the Garden of Life, isn't there?
Mary Stone 01:22
So this week, we will visit a money tree inspired by tending to dear friends Ruth and Jim's house plants while they're on vacation, and I thought I had a lot of houseplants. These avid gardeners move most of theirs in and out each season. Plus they have plants we treat as annuals in our zone that they bring indoors to keep them growing. So I actually went over there to get some coaching on their watering protocols because they have a nifty way of doing it. Jim rigged a method using one of those collapsible hoses attached to their faucet in the powder room so she could walk around and water the plants. I brought a water meter, a tool new to them, and after sticking it into a pot of ferns so tightly rootbound that the functional end of the meter stayed in the roots—a perfect excuse to buy a two-pack and give them one. By the way, their fern was very happy and healthy in their tight pot. Some plants like to be in tight pots, like some people like wearing tight-fitting jeans. I know it's true of spider plants, for instance.
Mary Stone 02:27
One of the plants I admire is their money tree that reaches above the large window in their historic Victorian home. They also have a ginormous avocado tree, and I was thinking of bringing my little bouncing baby avocado tree I keep talking about. Maybe I'll smuggle it in there. It'll just get lost in the shuffle. Haha. Their money tree reminds me of a money tree I met long ago, along with its plant parent, which turned out to be life-changing and became a column topic that starts like this.
Mary Stone 02:57
I met Diana Sebdza 10 years ago when I learned that the Karen and Quinlan Hospice offered not only group sessions for those who have lost a loved one but also one-on-one counseling services on a sliding scale based on your ability to pay. I was floundering after my brother Bill passed away, combined with other overlapping losses. It was a gift to benefit from Diana's wisdom, kindness, and the center's services. Fast forward three years, and it inspired me to become a hospice volunteer. It's hard to believe it's been over seven years since I've had the privilege of being part of the organization. And since meeting Ken Roberts, my singing partner, and dear friend.
Mary Stone 03:39
The bereavement center was in Newton, New Jersey, then. Now, it's named the Joseph T. Quinlan Bereavement Center in a dedicated building in Augusta. Diana became the Director of Bereavement. I coined her the queen of grief, and she and I became friends. In the entry area of the center was a beautiful tropical-looking plant with a nifty braided trunk that I asked her about. Teasing that it looks suspect as a marijuana plant once only legal for medicinal use in certain states. That sure has changed, hasn't it, since the story was written? As so many things have changed in life.
Mary Stone 04:16
It's a money tree, Pachira aquatic, and grows into a large tree in tropical and subtropical regions. As a house plant, it's a small bonsai tree. Diana shared the legend that a poor Taiwanese farmer first discovered the unusual yet attractive money tree growing in his field. He took it as a sign, dug it up, and brought it home to find it required very little care. The farmer decided to propagate and sell them at the market. They were an enormous success and brought him his longed for affluence, which is how the money tree became associated with wealth and prosperity. But life is much more than about money. Abundance comes from serving others.
Mary Stone 05:02
The number five suggests another theory about the meaning of the money tree. They typically have five trunks per plant, five leaves per trunk, and five lobes on each leaf. In Feng Shui, the ancient Asian art of arranging objects to generate a positive outcome, there are five elements - metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. The money tree pattern of five is said to represent those elements, and placing one in the southeast corner of your home is recommended. A side note here is that the five trunks are often braided but don't have to be. I think it's a way to stabilize the plant.
Mary Stone 05:44
Diana professes not to have a green thumb, and I beg to differ. The mother plant and the offshoot she potted are thriving, which speaks for itself. It also speaks for the nurturing gifts she shares with folks like me. Other common names for the money tree are water chestnut and Malabar chestnut. I believe only the house plant or bonsai is called a money tree or Money Plant. But if I may call Diana's plant, an abundance of love tree, the greatest currency of all. Diana has since retired from her role at the bereavement center, but not from sharing her abundance of love. The seeds continue to grow in all of us whom her service has blessed. Garden Dilemmas, Ask Mary stone.com.
Mary Stone 06:32
Speaking of houseplants, I had them in duress until I learned the trick of using rainwater and melted snow to water them, as we talked about in Episode Four, Rainwater Rejuvenation. And I want to share bits of this story about houseplants in duress.
Mary Stone 06:48
Some of my house plants are desperate. The low humidity of the heated house has wreaked havoc. Some of their pots are too tight, like my pants after the holiday. Thank goodness for stretchy jeans. Even if there were stretchy pots, the lack of nutrition and moisture from limited soil available to rootbound plants causes them stress. Then there's root girdling, when roots wrapped around each other, which must be as uncomfortable as too-tight jeans. If you see roots on the surface of your container or roots growing out of the drainage holes at the bottom. Your plants need repotting. Another sign is if your plants look bad.
Mary Stone 07:27
Even if your plant is wearing the right-sized pot, the soil grows tired and needs replenishing. Spring is the best time to repot indoor plants before they begin their peak growing cycle. Repotting a plant causes stress, as does having to go up a size and jeans. Still, I wonder if the trauma of insufficient nutrients is worse than the stress of repotting. In a nutshell, no. It's best to repot when plants are actively growing. It's best to stay in my too-tight jeans, too, which will inspire me to cut back on my chocolate intake. Dang.
Mary Stone 08:01
As an interim intervention, I placed the plants that could fit into the kitchen sink and ran room temperature water in the pots until they ran through the bottom holes. Be sure they completely drain before putting the plants back in their saucers. Plants sitting in water or with too wet soil will cause root rot. You can use the tub or shower for bigger plants. Doing this monthly during the heating season is ideal. And, of course, now I do it with rainwater or melted snow for the nitrogen boost. It likely goes without saying to cut away the yellowing leaves and dead plant debris to keep diseases from setting in.
Mary Stone 08:37
Fertilizing indoor plants monthly is standard protocol, suspending feeding from November through February when plants are inactive. However, given the state of my rootbound babies, I'm resuming feeding in early February, using fertilizer at half-strength as they begin to wake up with the increasing light. I'll provide comfort food every other week until it's time to report them come April, then full-strength monthly feeding protocols can return. But I must keep the consumption of chocolate in check. Dang.
Mary Stone 09:11
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the story of the money tree, and I hope it inspires you to follow whatever path shows up for you that leads you to find a purpose that feels good to you. And serving others, however small it is, because small gestures of kindness grow just as our plants do. It's a cycle of giving and loving that ripples, like when you drop a pebble in the pond. You see those ripples spreading out. It's so lovely to be part of those ripples. And I appreciate you being part of them with me.
Mary Stone 09:44
So, thanks so much for coming by. I always enjoy our time together, and I hope you have as well. I enjoy hearing from you each week. So keep those emails coming at Ask Mary stone@gmail.com. I will be sharing a very exciting subject about bark next week. So I hope you'll join me again. If you could share the podcast with a friend or two, I would so appreciate it so that more can join us in learning and growing in the garden of life. It means so much. Have a great day.
Mary Stone 10:14
You can follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook or online at Garden Dilemmas.com and on Instagram at hashtag Mary Elaine Stone. Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling. Thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch. And always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.