Justified faith in the power of plants

A hundred years ago, my officemate Paul left for Exeter University. I inherited his plants. And I looked after them as well as I could.

Then lockdown happened, and all these plants had to be moved to my house. That is still where they live! But it was a change and plants don't like that. And in a period of adverse weather, one of them died. It was a Begonia rex.

I have had plants die on me and come back to life before. And the sturdy stem of this begonia looked like it still could contain hidden strengths. So I decided to not throw it away. I just kept watering it, even though I felt a bit silly at times doing that.

And then, just when I was considering again whether to give up and throw it out, it grew leaves again! That please me a lot. It is really great if something exceeds your expectations. So the begonia is back! And it is not as if I couldn't look my former officemate in the eye if I would meet him now, but now I can do it with even more confidence. The plant lives! Sometimes you have to just wait out the bad times for something good to start thriving again…

The leaves are much bigger already! Some days passed between taking the picture and publishing it