I am not a plant person. I have accidentally and/or neglectfully killed multiple plants, which makes me sad but it’s true. My mom has this extremely green thumb and I just didn’t get it.
But I guess I’ve been nesting, because I went to Lowe’s and bought some succulents for my zoom background space, and a calathea for my bedroom, because I thought it was pretty. I didn’t even know what it was. I had to send a picture to my sister-in-law (also green thumbed) and say, “What is this?”
She responded quickly and thoroughly with the name and some details about what it likes, and also what kind of plants I would be less likely to harm. She said this one is a prayer plant, because it will open its leaves for the sun and then fold them up at night.
So I spent the next day staring at this plant, trying to see it move. And when it didn’t look like it was moving, I started wondering if I had bought a plastic plant thinking it was real. Those pieces along the base of the stems—they kind of look like they were made in a plastic mold, right? The leaves feel real…or do they feel like fabric? But I mean, you wouldn’t craft fabric leaves and then put a hole in one of them, right? So a vote for real. But then why do the stems feel so rigid?
Also, do I even deserve a plant if I literally can’t tell the difference between a real one and a fake one?
So the next morning I put it down in the patch of sunlight on the floor, and left it there all day. And when I came back upstairs at the end of the day, as the light was moving out of the room…
THOSE LEAVES HAVE FOLDED UP! Am I right??
What a thrilling moment! I’m not an idiot.
I named this plant Lydia. I’m thinking of getting some more plants.
The Cameraphone Diaries 