I have more than twenty pots of devil's ivy. I bothered to count them today while I was watering. They all look lush and green and have the damp earth smell of a florist's. I have more interesting plants, and certainly more challenging plants, but the ubiquitous ivy will always be special to me because it's the plant that made all other plantings possible.
Nearly seven years ago, I moved out of my parent's house and in with my boyfriend (who morphed into my husband, eventually) and my friend's mom gave me a cutting of her devil's ivy as a going away and housewarming present. I nervously accepted this gift because I hated to take something healthy and alive and subject it to a program of ignorance and neglect that would surely kill it. A couple of weeks after we arrived in the new apartment in the new city we bought our first bookshelf and I put the little potted ivy up on top. To my surprise, it didn't die. It even started to grow.
We moved again and I carried the plant on my lap in the car, it's long trailing vines bunched up in my hands. When I got my books organized in their new home, I put the ivy on top in its usual place. Other plants that I had rashly acquired during my fist success, died in this evil apartment of no light. But the ivy hung on. It got very leggy and spindly looking, but the fact that it still lived was enough to make me think it wouldn't be too arrogant to have another go with the plant kingdom.
After the third move, I nervously cut up the trailing vines and set them in jars of water. When they actually started to sprout little white roots, I was thrilled. I made lots of new plants. They flourished. I bought other varieties and didn't kill them either. I started to pay closer attention to my plants. I noticed that they grew better in certain parts of the apartment. I saw that by cutting back the vines on the ivy, they grew bushier and more attractive. I was able to get the hang of watering so that my plants didn't go through periods of limp deprivation nor days of sad bogginess. It occurred to me that these little experiments and observations meant that I was actually sort of skilled when it came to green things. I'd always admired houses with lots of plants, but I hadn't imagined that I could have one. Now I could.
I'm on my fifth apartment now and my ivy's vines and leaves appear in pots all over the apartment. Friends and family have received pots of cuttings almost exactly like the one I was given seven years ago. It's such a small thing, to give away a little green plant, but it meant so much to me. I want to give people the same opportunity to grow into a love for gardening with a plant that will wait patiently for mastery to come while it puts out leaves and roots itself in the home.
Click here to learn how to care for devil's ivy.
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