Restraint.
Yep, that’s the one great lesson I learned as a formerly frustrated “plantito” during this pandemic.
Sometimes, in our enthusiasm to literally make things grow — such as plants — we actually end up killing them.
That’s what I saw when my first snake plant, Lucia, died because of overwatering. She developed root rot.
A ZZ plant we call Olivia also developed a problem because of overwatering. One of her beautiful stems yellowed and then withered.
Without my knowing it then, I was drowning my plants because I thought that’s how to take care of them. I loved them so much I did what any advocate of water therapy would tell their friends: drink up. Unfortunately for my plants, they couldn’t drain water as much as humans could.
So the next time we “take care” of plants — or anybody or anything — let’s take a step back and find out how much they need of what we can give.
Daryl Zamora 