I had six cuttings in six jars, and by the second week five had gone soft at the base. I was sure I’d done everything right until I looked closely at the nodes.
I lost my first geraniums to a winter I never saw coming. They weren’t frozen, they weren’t starved of light, and I had never once forgotten them. The problem was the one thing I thought I was doing right.
I found my money tree shedding leaves overnight, and every guess I made was wrong. The one thing I didn’t check was the trunk, and that turned out to be the whole story.
My rubber plant lost five leaves in a month, and the yellowing started at the bottom. I assumed it was just getting older, until I pulled it out of its pot and saw what was happening underneath.
I watered my string of pearls more, and it kept shriveling. Then I ran my thumb along one trailing strand and felt something I didn’t expect.
I ran my finger across a pothos leaf expecting dust, and the film came away clinging to my skin. The windowsill beneath it was sticky too, and that was the first clue something was feeding on my plant.
I had been watering my spider plant every week for months, so I could not understand why every new leaf came out with a crisp brown edge. Then I noticed the white crust around the pot’s drainage holes.
I found a wisp of white cotton tucked where the leaves meet the stem, and it looked harmless enough. Then I touched it, and the fluff moved.
I found white fuzz on my favorite pothos one morning and assumed the worst. It turned out the real answer was hiding in the soil itself, and it could have been three different things.
A jade plant dropping leaves is sending a message, and the texture of what lands on the soil is the easiest part to read. Pick one up and squeeze it.
