Precarious times for my three rubber plants. I acquired them at the tail end of last year, and in their original condition, they were truly glorious. Rubber plants are one of my favourites.
Turns out they're a little fussier than I anticipated. Not so long after I separated them into the three trees they appeared to be, the tips of the lower leaves began to turn black. This blackness spread, until over half the leaf had withered, and became to ugly for me to let it live. This happened on several leaves per plant, always the lower leaves, rendering the once bushier branches barer. Here is one such plant today:
Here is another:
Here is another, with the last remaining shrivelling leaf:
Beneath that you can see a prayer plant baby I'm also nursing, but never mind about that now.
Less impressive, to be sure, but hope remains. All but one leaf on one plant has resisted the blackening. I read on one rubber plant advice page about how such things may be to do with the conditions in which the plant was originally grown. This was encouraging.
One problem I had was determining whether or not to water the things. As many sites as I can find suggest that rubber plants suffer as much from too much water as from too little, which amounts to useless advice. Should I water them or not? Nobody seems to know.
Anyway, one of my favourite things about rubber plants is the way new leaves develop. They unfurl from inside the shoot at the top a branch, chrysalis-like. From inside the leaf, the branch continues, and grows another. It's a sight to see.
At the end of my bed are two rubber plants.
The tip of one looks like this:
The tip of the other looks like this:
I feel strongly that at least one of these is going to give birth to a shiny new leaf very soon. Could be any day now. If this happens, I will take it as a good sign. Rubber plants will have accepted me.
My cheese plant, by the way, already has.
I've cared for this more meticulously than my rubber plants, repotting it immediately when I first bought it two weeks ago and giving it a good drink; and only watering it again yesterday, feeding it with a little worm compost. Now I have to leave it again for another month. Here it is, as was, two weeks ago:
Perhaps cheese plants are just more easily pleased, which is a fun sentence to say, as well as type. Seeing it settle in makes me happy. #plantsmakepeoplehappy Rubber plants dole out happiness in their own good time.
At the end of my bed are two rubber plants.
The tip of one looks like this:
The tip of the other looks like this:
I feel strongly that at least one of these is going to give birth to a shiny new leaf very soon. Could be any day now. If this happens, I will take it as a good sign. Rubber plants will have accepted me.
My cheese plant, by the way, already has.
I've cared for this more meticulously than my rubber plants, repotting it immediately when I first bought it two weeks ago and giving it a good drink; and only watering it again yesterday, feeding it with a little worm compost. Now I have to leave it again for another month. Here it is, as was, two weeks ago:
Perhaps cheese plants are just more easily pleased, which is a fun sentence to say, as well as type. Seeing it settle in makes me happy. #plantsmakepeoplehappy Rubber plants dole out happiness in their own good time.
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