Begats

And, lo, it came to pass that, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-five, there came into our lives a Plant. A schefflera arboricola, by name. Also known to many as the dwarf umbrella and parasol, and to the Taiwanese as the Hainan. And as a Plant, it was Good. And it was Fruitful. Well, not exactly fruitful, as it bore no fruit, but it certainly knew how to go forth and multiply.

The original plant five years ago, about seventeen years old. As it got taller, the top foot or so would be unceremoniously lopped off and disposed of.

One day I decided to try a make a new plant out of the cutting, rather than simply chucking it and, boy, did that work.

This was taken a couple years after the initial planting, when it had already been shortened several times. The root base was filling in nicely, sort of clutching the soil. The pot is quite small, so the roots need to be pruned back every couple of years.

Whether I used a cutting from this plant or the original, I don’t recall, but I wanted one for the office downtown. I didn’t have any artistic motives, at first. Just a potted whatever to bring some life into the shop. Preferably something more or less indestructible. This thing fit the bill. It’s actually so dull that I have apparently never seen fit to snap a photo of it. It looks pretty much identical to the original.

That plant thrived (throve?) in the abundant sunlight, as well as the bright fluorescents at the office, and it  was time to start chopping it back. Well, waste not, want not. I brought a nice flat pot from home and started yet another cutting. So now we’ve got the grand-child of the original. This one also took off like the proverbial bat and got chopped back repeatedly.

A few years later, when the people who looked after the plants in the hallway of our building managed to kill the one outside my office, it was time for another iteration, the great-grand-child.

This is actually the first one that I didn’t personally repot. It was done by Joan and Chris, my apprentices, while I was off on holidays. They apparently did a good job because this is what it looks like a couple years later. It’s the bushiest one of all and hasn’t been hacked back at all yet. That top section is starting to look a little, ummm… uppity. Might be time to let it know what’s what.

Back home, now, I hear tell that Kristin is moving into a new house and, as if she hasn’t got enough plants already, I figured she could use one of these puppies. Besides, the first son was, once again, getting a little gangly. This was probably the most aggressive chop-job yet, as I took the entire top of the tree off and potted it. The old base looked pretty sad for a few weeks but, hey looky. The first little leaf has popped out the side and we’re off to the races once again.

Now we come to the reason for putting this whole thing together. Kristin contacted me last night and told me that her plant was already getting too big. Now, granted, I tend to plant these things in fairly tight pots, unless they’re going to be decorative plants rather than pseudo-bonsai, but it’s only been a couple weeks. Kris has always had a way of helping plants to thrive, so this doesn’t surprise me overmuch.

It’s choppin’ time.