Someone save the plants!

[jethrien]

In the foyer of my office are several plants.

Two are two planters with about 4 each of pink and white candy-striped dendrobium orchids. They are gorgeous. (I've never seen dens that color before.) They are apparently well loved, and just fine.

The other two, however, are not. There are two spathiphyllums (is that how you pluralize that?) that are not nearly as showy as the orchids. Apparently this means that they are far less worthy of love. By which I mean, they clearly haven't been watered for at least a week, and their poor little leaves are all drooping over. They look awful. I'd be tempted to sneak over with my coffee cup and give them both a good drink, but then the plant maintenance people might come by and water them again and then they'd drown. (I don't think very much of the plant maintenance people.)

Poor little plants. All they need is love. And a good drink.

Comments

[chantal1382.livejournal.com]

we don't HAVE plants in our building. probably because it's 3 stories high and has no windows, and the plants would probably thus die. that or the plants don't have the right security clearance. =)

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

There actually are no windows in the foyer, either. Plants can do ok with fluorescent lights.

Oddly enough, my actual office is an internal room with no windows. We have a cutting that was apparently taken from a dying plant that got thrown out. It's lived in a pitcher for the last two years, with plain water dumped in at random intervals. No sunlight, no dirt, no plant food. It's huge, growing, and cheerfully healthy.

[(Anonymous)]

The orchids are doing fine because they need less water than the spaths. The spaths, depending on the size, need a lot more water, once/week. (Maybe somebody just forgot them this week. If they were left for much longer than that, they wouldn't be alive at all.) I would give them the appropriate amount of water, and maybe a post-it note that says, "watered, x date". If they're big - like, filling containers that are 12" across, they need about three cups of water, once/week. They respond quickly once they're watered, but if they collapse too often, they'll die. They shouldn't be soggy, but they should never dry out completely.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

It's the second time in the last two months they've gotten droopy.

Thanks, Plant Maintenance Mom!