Mother’s column: In the end, the pancake plant conquered our house

I admit that there is still a world to be won here regarding green care. Usually, I only water a plant when it starts to look tired. You have to be able to cope with that as a plant. Some specimens do eventually recover after a difficult period, but you cannot call them beautiful then.

Neline is married and the mother of five: Martha (8), Abel (6), Jolijn (5), Reinout (3) and Sifra (0).

And what should you do with ugly plants? Throw them away? That is going too far for me because they are still alive after all. So, I put them in the garage, where they die a quiet death after a while. Then they can go in our famous green bin after all.

Second life for plants

Recently, I read about a plant shelter, where volunteers with green fingers give other people’s plants a second life. That must be a gap in the market.

The trick, of course, is to buy plants that suit you. In our case, aloe vera’s are a great success. That’s probably because they only really thrive when you forget about them. They are miracle plants anyway. They top all the lists of air-purifying houseplants, and aloe vera is also a tried-and-tested home remedy. You can buy expensive aloe vera gel, or you can put one of these plants in your room. In an emergency, just break off a stem and rub it in.

Another plant has now conquered our windowsills: the pancake plant. It all started with an impulse buy at the supermarket. Once at home, when I googled care tips, I was relieved to discover that there is no trick to it: water it once a week, and that’s it. Incidentally, I found that you can also easily take cuttings from them. The new shoots grow in bunches under the mother plant, and you can harvest a few every month. For free! Meanwhile, our kitchen counter is full of pots. One of my first cuttings has already become a mother.

Rampant greenery

If it gets too crazy, I can always take part of my pancake collection to the houseplant shelter; I keep telling myself. But giving it away is, of course, more fun. To people who, against all trends, are also happy with overgrown greenery in their home.