Back in 2011, we didn't put up our Christmas tree. I think we both were busy and stressed out with work. That may have been the (first) year we spent Thanksgiving with my parents and came home to a flooded basement. Whatever happened, we decided to decorate the household plants instead of putting up the tree.
I'm so glad I took a photo of the decorated candelabra cactus Lizard inherited from his father. Because it's the only good photo I ever took of the plant, I think, and it's gone now. I am so sad!
The cactus had grown about another foot or so, plus a host of new branches, since I snapped that chilly Christmas photo. In the last couple of years, it kept leaning, and we kept repotting. It didn't survive the most recent repotting last autumn. Slowly, from the bottom up, it yellowed, withered and died. We did everything we could to try to save it, including potting some of the healthy little branches. But all turned yellow from the bottom up, withered and died.
We also lost the rubber plant and the monstera plant Lizard also inherited from his father. I don't think I have a single photo of the rubber plant, which began drooping in about November and slowly lost all its leaves. I'd taken many photos of the beautiful monstera leaves. The monstera died back a couple of times, and we were able to save a branch of it twice. But this time, it apparently had grown tired.
I think we've lost four of Lizard's dad's plants in the last few years. We still have five plants Lizard inherited from his father, plus a hoya plant we bought to replace the first inherited hoya we lost (to mealy bugs) a few years ago.
Neither of us knew the hoya could bloom; I was so shocked the first time one bloomed for us! The three hoya plants Lizard's dad had nutured quickly became my indoor favorites, and I wondered if he had ever seen them bloom. (I didn't get to meet Lizard's dad. He passed away before Lizard and I met.)
The remainder of our indoor garden seems to be thriving, so hopefully we've unintentionally freed up a bit of walking space in the living room and can happily continue our indoor jungle ways for a few more years.
