This is my chenille plant, which I love for two reasons. First, I remember being young and hearing my mom say she had a chenille bedspread as a girl and I always liked the word chenille sounded. Second, the plant looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book:
"I am a chenille plant!I'd stop growing, but I can't!
I grow all day, I grow all night
Here in CA the weather's right!
Bring me coffee when you rise
And I'll photosynthesize."
(Wouldn't you know it, she only speaks in rhymed couplets.)
Like everything out here, the plant grows surprisingly well. It has doubled in size in the last 2 months without any fertilizer. (Occasionally I put cooled, watered down leftover coffee on it because someone, either my grandmother or my former office-mate, said the acidity was good for flowering plants.) It stays under our porch with only about 4 hours of indirect sunlight each day and I hear the cuttings easily make new plants. With babies or pets, it has to hang out of reach: the plant and especially the red fuzzies can cause nausea if ingested. And that, my friends, would not be pretty.
2 comments:
That plant is great! The tuft-y pink bits are totally Seussical. On a related note, my own little plant has been growing really well since I moved in. It is the first plant that has not died in my care, and I am inordinately proud of it.
That is such a pretty plant!! I think I might have to go find one! LOL!
If you go to Starbucks, you can ask for their Grounds - they are free and you can use them for fertilization! (Link: http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/compost.asp)
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