When it comes to failures, there’s a way to look at them. It’s not always what I did nor what I didn’t do. In some cases, it’s the plants, but I shouldn’t take it personally. In these cases, it’s quite the learning experience. As discussed in the previous journal of this title, there were many plants that I couldn’t successfully grow, such as the lavender plants.
Unfortunately, I can say the same about these same plants in this entry. That one is the Kawaii Soiree catharanthus, aka White Peppermint. For a bit, it was growing and flowering quite well. Eventually it just dried up, and couldn’t recover, no matter what I did. Now I compared this to the lavender plant, because when it dried up, it basically went through the same process, but with one exception. The white peppermint, was continuously flowering, where the lavender was peaked when it comes to flowering. When it started to change, and began to just give up on itself, by no coincidence, it was when the weather transition occurred from summer to fall.
Sometimes, simple seasonal and weather transitions will be the catalyst to some plants simply not making it. This has been the case, whereas moving them from a well-lit area, to an area that’s not exposed to enough light, even with a grow light presence, will not be enough to keep it alive. Truthfully, this is really the only one that I’ve had this experience with, in that last scenario described. Oh well.
Lots of failures can be attributed to a plant’s desire or need for a special kind of comfort and environment, while others can simply be attributed to human error. In many cases, for those that don’t make it, it may be because it didn’t get enough sunlight, whether it’s indirect or direct sun, depends on the plant. For others, they may not have received enough water, or they just didn’t have the right kind of water. In some instances, we have to be very watchful and self-aware of what we are doing, because the only way the plants can respond, is by certain actions an inactions. For example, for many plants, if you don’t water them enough, the leaves will wilt, and be somewhat droopy in appearance. If there isn’t enough sunlight, many plants won’t be green, or won’t get greener; instead, they’ll likely become a dull brown color, or something else that’s not showing a bright color. If it gets too much sunlight, it may burn the leaves of the plants. So, it’s not enough to just give it the basics, and just leave them alone, and then come back a month later. That’s not a good idea.
Usually, when you realize that a plant couldn’t make it, especially of a specific variety, you can regroup, so that those failures of the past, become present and future successes.
When looking back at the white peppermint mentioned here, was that really a failure on my part? Yes and no. I say yes, because maybe I didn’t catch the warning signs fast enough. I say no, because after a while, it just didn’t want to reacclimate in a not so bright setting. It happens, and maybe in the future, should I receive another like that one, then it can be seen as a success from what I’ve learned from caring for this one.