I am becoming more and more annoyed with "florist plants" as time goes by. Long story short, plants that are not really "grown" much at all.
Most of the flowering seasonal plants you find at a grocery store, and even some at home and garden stores are created for the express purpose of dying.
They are cuttings taken from a mother plant, hormonally rooted, and then force flowered under lighting, and given high doses of fertilizer to create lovely seasonal table centerpieces that really last only about as long as cut flowers. The benefit to the manufacturers being of course that it *seems* like a plant, thus they can charge live plant prices.
Unfortunately this means you end up with a few pathetic sticks holding up mounds of blossoms. Those mounds of blossoms are the death of the plant. They drain what little nutrients the plant has, and since the root systems are young and underdeveloped it cannot support the flowers.
I cringe walking by the grocery store displays of miniature roses, hydrangeas, poinsettias and various lilies. I buy them with the goal of saving them from dying. Most of them, were they to be put directly into the ground upon arriving home would die anyways. They often cannot tolerate natural conditions because they are not natural plants. Disbudding is a step to saving a large flowered plant, but it is not a guarantee. They still need high lighting (4-5 hours a day full sun) fertilizer and high quality soil to ease them into a more natural state of existence. To replenish what those large beautiful blooms took from the plant.
No sooner do these pathetic little things start to get a life force of their own, they are taken out from under the lighting that was sustaining them. They are being artificially brought to term, and "delivered."
My plants, have a "vibe" and energy that is tangible and grows as the plant grows. Were I to take off a part of the plant - even for example cutting roses for a table, I am bringing a part of the plants energy away from itself. The energy of the original plant fades in a few days. Even a rooted clone only holds the energy of the parent plant for a short time. Once it roots, it establishes an energy and personality of it's own. While a clone may hold the attributes of the mother plant, it's energy is it's own. Not connected.
This seems to happen at about the point that it begins to draw nourishment and grow independently. In my opinion of course, this is energy is a 'soul' or 'spirit' of some description.
The florist plants, have an energy of their own and are developing it in spite of the unnatural circumstances under which they are generated. It seems rather like large scale homicide and just vastly unfair to all parties involved to give life just for it to die. Disposable souls.
Also vastly disappointing to meet someone, just to have them up and die on you a few days later. Embarrassed
I don't know whether I would encourage people not to buy them, because then I am a hypocrite to my own credo since I buy (rescue!) a few a year; but if you are buying them with the intention of "gifting" someone with a live plant; please don't. If you must, try to find a garden store buy a plant with a better chance of survival and put some gift wrap around the pot.
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