It all started when I saw that my jade plant was much, much wiltier than usual. It had been getting a little wilty lately, so I’d stopped watering it, having recognized the early stages of stemrot. (The jade is a succulent, related to the cactus, and can’t handle overwatering.) And, sure enough, when I checked it today, the stemrot was in full force. Damn plant couldn’t stand up on its own at all, the almost-trunk was papery-dry on the outside and empty on the inside—all rotted out. Damn.
So, I sat down and yanked the damn plant out of its pot, removing the rotted parts from the still-healthy parts. Currently, the healthy parts are sitting on top of the microwave stand so they can be repotted later. I’ll leave them sit for a few days, to grow a callus where the roots will be, then I’ll repot them and attempt not to kill them again. As I seem to do every few years.
With that crisis handled, I went upstairs to water the remainder of my plants, only to find that the cat had been up on the plant table and had severed my barely-recovered begonia right under the healthy, leafy part. It was only just getting used to being potted, and was finally beginning to stand up on its own and bloom again. Damn cat managed to pop off the top, where all the leaves were resprouting and the one bloom was just budding. Now, I was already pissed off at myself for having given my jade stemrot, so woe be unto the cat if she even sets foot in the same room with me today. She’s already discovered this, and is giving me a wide berth. Anyway, I took the decapitated begonia top downstairs and put it in a vase to sprout roots again.
Now, on to the outdoor plants. The coriander is just about dead, the dwarf hydrangeas are definitely dead, there are bugs eating my rosebush, my lavender isn’t blooming and neither is my rock cress or baby’s breath, and my pearlwort, while having spread mightily since May, is now looking brown and icky in spots.
Fucking plants. Why do I even bother?