Plant Rescue

 Ovidia--every other Tuesday

It's a Moon Day today, so no morning yoga practice at the Shala. (I try to go at least three times a week--five is my goal, but I don't always make it.)

I went for an early--gentle--walk instead. And I found a dead plant a neighbour had put out for disposal.

Yes it's on my patio now. The roller base is mine. But the pot it came in is nice--a good, solid old style red claypot. It was the pot that caught my attention first. I figured could recycle it instead of letting it get crushed in the garbage truck.

It was heavy.

And I saw why it had been thrown out--the mealy bugs on it were quite horrifying--

And there were ants wandering around on it, which made me worry for my own plants. Because it's the ants that cultivate mealy bugs, protecting and tending to them and finding new plants for them to infest and devastate in exchange for the honeydew they produce. 

Kind of like we cultivate sheep... and cows and corn, infesting and devastating our forest zones. I'm fond of ants--don't get me wrong. I'm also quite fond of some people.

I meant to dig the plant out and scrub down the pot. But then I saw this poor adenium wasn't quite dead yet--

There were still five tiny green leaves alive, after I pulled off all the dead brown ones. And there were several hopeful little buds sticking out. 

I used isopropyl alcohol on cotton swabs and underneath the mass of white death they're still alive...

And though several rotten branches needed to be cut away, its base seems solid. It's quite an old plant, rather like an old rescue dog that I can maybe give a few more good years to.

I'll probably dig it out of its pot (the pot that caught my attention) this weekend and see what kind of condition its roots are in, but that'll have to wait till after I finish the current WIP. 

But I'm going to give it a chance. If it survives I'll post more photos--please wish me luck!