Leave
It Alone!
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| Keikis are clones of orchid plants. |
Put that person, place, or thing aside,
leave it alone, and it might turn into something of beauty all on its own.
A
mini-me growing from your arm or leg is not possible in the human world (yet),
but mini-me growth often happens in the orchid world. Orchid growers know about
the keiki (kee-kee), which is a clone—an additional plant that grows on a Dendrobium orchid cane or a flowering
stem of a Phalaenopsis and some other
orchids. I’m not an orchid expert, so I don’t know exactly why this happens. In
my limited experience, it’s often another chance at life for a neglected,
soon-to-die mother plant.
I overheard
an accomplished grower say he places keikis in a basket until they mature enough
to pot or mount. Because he’s a pro, he probably has separate baskets and his
keikis have name tags, so he knows what they are. My method involves tossing
random Dendrobium keikis into a plastic
basket and abandoning them for a year—or longer.
Leaving
things alone to thrive (or not) in their own way is not my MO. I named myself Interfering Mom years ago because I
pick, I advise, I threaten, I beg. I offer the most helpful suggestions, but most
of the people I am certain would benefit most from my advice ignore me. I
know about being ignored, but not so much about ignoring.
However,
I ignored a lot the last several months. I stayed inside because of the brutal
heat and my flower and herb gardens are an overgrown, weedy mass of plants. I
also wrestled with some physical limitations since late May, which presented
even more opportunities to ignore growing as well as non-growing things. During
that time, I focused only on what was important—working, eating, sleeping,
meditating. I left most other things alone.
Now
that the daily heat blasts of the Florida summer and my physical limitations have
started to diminish, I find myself outside again, poking through the overgrown
weeds and dehydrated potted plants, looking for what living things, like me, made
it through another summer. I neglected (ignored) so much over the previous six
months that I had to reorder my patio and its nearly ninety potted plants. I
moved some plants, and behind a shelf I spied my hanging basket of abandoned keikis.
I was stunned to see that many no longer were keikis—some were plants and one
had a bloom spike. I stopped ignoring the basket and a few days later, the
plant had bright, beautiful blooms.
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| Surprise gift of Dendrobium blossoms |
I
don’t recommend neglect, even though I know some plants (and people) do better
when they are left alone to grow on their own. More than a few plants didn’t
make it during those neglectful months (but all the people who rejected my
interfering have done just fine). I have fewer plants than I did at the
beginning of spring. But much of what I have has thrived in spite of me. It’s a
good lesson when I see these blooms to remind myself that I don’t always have
to preen, pull, pamper, and push—in the human world as well as the plant world.
Sometimes, when I leave things alone, they grow and blossom and turn into something
of beauty all on their own.
* * * * *
Leave
it alone does not work with many things in our lives, of course. It is not a
great idea to leave our electric bill or mortgage payment alone, for example. Choose
wisely when deciding when to “interfere” and when to “leave it alone.”
