Come on, nature

Last summer, I planted a tiny little banana leaf plant in one of the flower container gardens on my patio. By the end of summer, the plant was very full and about six feet tall by six feet wide. Frank took it to his office, where it spent the winter. We brought it back home a couple of weeks ago, but the journey was hard for the plant. It had grown very lanky from living indoors, and then most of the leaves got bent up and damaged in transit. We had to cut it back, and now it looks sadly pathetic. However, I believe, based on how this plant flourished on the patio last year, that it's going to come back. Here is a picture of it in early June. I'll show it again at the end of summer.

I also have a fiddleleaf ficus that had the opposite problem from the banana plant. The fiddlelaf ficus went bonkers in my house and when it hit the ceiling, just kept growing along the ceiling across the room. I decided to cut it back to about half of its original size. It, too, looks sadly pathetic. Hoping for a banner summer for this plant.

Finally, the other plant. This plant was at work when I first bought it and it was very small, about four years ago. There wasn't enough light, and the plant got very skinny and tall. It was too tall and skinny to support itself, so I staked it. It spent last summer on the patio, where it put out new growth, but only got taller. After a winter in the guest room, it was time for some tough love. Last week, I cut off the entire top three feet of the plant. I'm also hoping that summer brings robust growth to this plant. On the upside, it is currently self-supporting.

Me. Things that grow. Hope for those things that grow. This is my life lately.