Friday, June 17, 2022

PLANTS

      Spring is the time for new plants to appear. Now we're at the peak of the spring season and looking ahead to summer. 

      But thee are indoor plants!

      I don't know how it happened but at one time I had many "house plants " or maybe to be more exact "school plants. "  

      Well, I do have an idea why I accumulated so many plants. I probably asked a teacher who had plants. I know the Vice Principal gave me a huge Christmas cactus. After that plants just kept accumulating. Somebody had a plant they didn't want? Send it to school with the kid and give it to the teacher. There were many small plants like ivies. I had one ivy that trailed around the classroom. There were large plants like split leaf Philodendrom, diefenbachia. I also had a couple of tree like plants that grew to the classroom ceiling. 

      I was surprised by how many middle school kids were interested in plants. I always had some starters on the go for kids who wanted a plant. I think some of them had a favorite plant that they would visit each day as I would catch somebody daydreaming at a plant. There were many secretive plant waterers. I just kept my eye on things to  see that nothing was missed. 

   I was also surprised that there wasn't vandalism. I had one or two aloe veras. There was always somebody who needed the aloe vera for some owy but they always asked for permission. 

    So one day a kid said to me. "Mr. Kline do you know how many plants you have?" I said "No. Did you count them?" He had counted them so I said, "How many?"  Forty two! So my classroom was a bit of a jungle.

     When I retired I had to get rid of my plants. So teachers wanted some and kids wanted some. Some I wanted to take home. I made my plan to retire a year before so I had lots of time to clear things up. 

    Plants created a good times for me and some students.