One Person’s Trash

Filling my home with thrown-away beauty

Somebody has been tossing pinched-off bits of philodendron out their window around the corner from where I live for years.

For the most part, they aren’t exactly viable bits and I’ll sidestep them with regret; how sad to see them wither and get kicked aside on the cold gray sidewalk. And with Mama’s Fried Chicken up the street, the slowly dying philodendrons share that sidewalk with sparrows picking at discarded chicken bones.

Life in the city ain’t pretty sometimes.

I have to admit that there were several times I passed pinched-off shoots that were big enough to root but didn’t stoop down to save them. I have probably left two or three dozen of those shoots on the sidewalk to die (shame on me!). But it bugged me so much that finally I did scoop up several of those babies and brought them home to root.

There was a time when I surrounded myself with houseplants. My last apartment back in Cleveland was filled with plants. It was on the top floor of a four-story walkup with loads of light. I got a spunky little dragon tree from K-Mart that was a strong, mature, too-big-to-bring-with-me tree by the time I had been accepted into Columbia University and was getting ready to move.

I had cuttings from many of my mother’s houseplants including what she called her tri-leaf wonder (aka an arrowhead) and several huge healthy wandering jews. I had one that was so huge that I draped it in lights and ornaments one Christmas. It never really recovered so I didn’t do that again.

When the day came that I’d packed up everything and was ready to move to New York City I gave away all those plants. It’s been nearly 20 years; I wonder if any are still greening up somebody’s life and home?

I still have dreams about walking into my living room and finding a corner filled with plants; plants I’ve neglected and forgotten about for years that are still thriving.

Hmmm, what can that mean?

It’s been about two years now since I began rooting those tossed-off cuttings and, as you can see from the above photo, I’m up to two fully potted plants and yet another vigorously rooting shoot. I’ve also sent carefully wrapped shoots home with friends so they can green up their homes, too. All thanks to some unknown person who is probably sitting in an apartment choked with huge, healthy philodendrons. This unknown benefactor, in turn, may wonder but never know if anyone has ever picked up those cast-off bits of green and done anything with them.

I wish I could thank that person. Who knows, maybe they read Medium and will see this?

If so: thank you!

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