Green Fingers, Black Thumb, And What Are Surfaces For?
They’re prickly questions
It’s not a picture of wizened grapes covered in spiders, but it would be an easy mistake to make. It’s a cactus that has lived with us for several years and it seems happy enough, though like all the plants it looks a bit lacklustre at this time of year.
If asked, would that cactus say I fell into the category of green fingers or black thumb? That’s hard to know, but I sometimes think it would rather be left alone to get on with things in its own way.
I worry about the cobwebs because the little critters who produce them can do real damage. They are spider mites (arachnids but not spiders) and trying to remove their webs is a futile exercise — believe me, I’ve tried everything.
Neither of our vacuum cleaners has a get-cobwebs-off-cacti setting. The old feeble one whirrs a bit, but the cobwebs don’t even shimmer, let alone let go; the fierce new one threatens to take the whole plant out of the pot before ingesting a mouthful of stones and having to be taken away for surgery. Using dusters produces a plant covered in cobwebs and bits of cloth. And the results of going in by hand add weight to my theory that the plant would prefer to deal with its cobweb coat in its own way.
My tip: forget the cobwebs and persuade the spider mites to move out. It’s not difficult in our climate as they prefer hot, dry, desert-like conditions. Occasional spraying does the trick — water on its own usually persuades them to go, but there are other potions to evict stubborn colonies.
This motley collection is also in its winter livery. The plants will get a bit of trimming but otherwise be left to overwinter. Experience suggests that when the warmer weather comes, they will return to something like this:
or this:
But whether or not they thrive, I’m never sure what role I have had to play. I do what they seem to need and mostly they put up with it. I love houseplants, but I’ve never gone out of my way to acquire them. They just arrive and we shift things about to make room.
After all, what is the purpose of a flat surface? If not filled with houseplants, it will only generate clutter.
Inspired by Ellie Jacobson’s question in this post:
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