Several years ago my sister gifted me with a purple tradescantia plant. It was small, only two or three branches that were about five or six inches long. It grew quickly, and within the first few months it stretched its arms and slowly began taking over my desk. I had several nicknames for this life-loving plant. Lord of the Plants, Fastest Growing Foliage, Ruler of the Purple Pot, and Overthrower of Desktop Space.
It wasn’t long before this beauty became a giant among plants in my apartment. Having grown too large for the desk, I moved it into the window in my room, and then after becoming too heavy with vines to safely rest on the top of the blind rod, I moved it into my living room, where it continued to grow and flourish for the next year. At the height of its glory, I thought this monster was going to outgrow me. The vines just went on and on, and grew almost as long as the breakfast bar in my kitchen.
As impressive as it may look, there was a glaring issue with this glorious, vibrant vine. As much as I wanted to pretend that this luscious beauty was completely happy and growing and living its best life under my care, it was still unmistakable that the poor thing had never received the full amount of sunlight it needed to truly thrive. The vines may have looked really lovely from the side view, but upon a chance encounter of looking at the plant from the top down, it was sadly apparent that this beauty was in desperate need of the plant equivalent of hair implants.
Something had to be done. It was time to sterilize my shears and prepare for major surgery and reconstruction. There was really only one way to revitalize and save this beauty, and that was to simply . . . demolish it. I carefully examined every vine and decided which I could save, and then carefully chopped each and every vine into three-four inch pieces. There were sections where the leaves were simply too sparse, with five and six inches between leaves, and those section couldn’t be saved. All in all, I ended up throwing away about half of the plant. That said, I still got over 30 cuttings from the sections that could be saved. I had a small army of tradescantia cuttings that took over my kitchen counter for weeks.
I had a moment of panic and existential dread after dissecting and deconstructing the plant that was my pride and joy for two years. The first photo on the left shows the demolition in progress, the newly built cutting army is assembled in the second photo, and taking center stage in the third photo are the cuttings about four or five days after I first put them in water. They grew roots faster than I could have imagined. I let them stay in the water for about three weeks (maybe more…maybe five or six, but who’s counting?) before amassing almost all of the cuttings back into the original pot from whence they came.
Along the way, a few of the cuttings didn’t take well to being planted in the soil, but most survived and are beginning to grow quite nicely. As the days are warming up, I plan to put the pot outside during the day, to give it the extra light it needs to grow lush and vibrant. There is also good news coming for my plants, which is part of the reason it has been so inexcusably long since I last posted. The shady apartment is going by the wayside, and soon the plants will be living in a well lit apartment with a sunny patio. They don’t know it yet, but they (and I) are all about to have all the light they need. Until next time, here’s wishing you all good cheer and happy plants.
Laughing At Myself In An Empty Room 