A few of the plants in my pot garden (not the smoking kind) seem downright reluctant to get on with the business of blooming. The slow-to-start spectacular show-off bromeliad is a good example. Some years it doesn't even bloom at all. That's not the case with another plant that Margaret doesn't particularly like but that I like very much. Remarkable for its determination to live and reproduce, a varigated variety of a tropical plant grows in hanging pots and on the ground outside my study window. It needs only air and moisture to thrive. It manages to get enough of what it needs to grow when less hardy plants wither and die if I go away and neglect them for even a short time. It resists all the usual garden pests. Snails pass it by and affix themselves to tender neighbors. It doesn’t allow blight and mold to take hold.

This plant does what animals do. It makes a miniature version of itself which it nurtures until the new life is strong enough to go out and live on its own. The little ones learn the lesson of survival well. While still attached to the parent by an umbilical stem, the little plant sends out roots that take moisture from the air, and if the roots touch soil, it quickly attaches itself to earth. The new plant not only fends for itself soon after it is born; but it invariably does it gracefully, dancing in air to the gentlest breeze.

Check out my baby pictures below.