My pink plant was dying and I freaked out
So last Tuesday, I walked into my little plant corner ready to water everyone. Total mess. My favorite Flowerpot vp9, the pink one from the nursery sale? Looked awful. Leaves hanging limp like wet socks. Yellow edges everywhere. Felt like a punch in the gut. Grabbed my phone, snapped like twenty pictures under different lights. Still looked dead. “Okay,” I told myself, panicking a little, “time for a rescue mission.”
Operation save the pink plant started
First thing I did? Yanked that pot out of its saucer. Stuck my finger deep into the dirt. Mud pie. Soaked. Realized that fancy new pot I repotted it into last month? Total trap. Drainage holes were basically fake news. Barely a trickle came out. Big mistake, right? Went outside, found an old terra cotta pot from my mom’s stash. Way uglier, but actual holes at the bottom you could stick a pencil through.
Mixed new dirt right there on my kitchen counter:
- Half bag of regular potting soil
- Handful of perlite I found in the garage (the white pebble stuff)
- Broken up chunks of pine bark mulch from the back garden path
No measuring cups. Just dumped, stirred, looked kinda like lumpy cake mix. Scraped the plant out of its old soggy grave, roots all dark and sad. Shook off the wet dirt clumps, felt weirdly brave. Dropped some broken pottery pieces into the new ugly pot – gotta make a drainage layer, my grandma always said. Packed the new dirt mix around the roots, patted it down gently. More like nervous tapping.
The light game got real tricky
Originally had the pink plant on my shelf. Looks cute for pics, gets zero sun. Figured that might be why it looked pale and sickly. Stuck it right on the windowsill in the kitchen – south facing. BAM. Next afternoon, some leaves looked like they got fried bacon. Crispy brown bits. Too much sun! Moved it again, pulled it back about two feet from the window onto a little stool. Key thing learned? Bright but kinda indirect light. Like under a tree outside, but inside your house. Used that trick for about ten days.
Watering without drowning it is hard
Okay, watering is where I always mess up. This time I stuck a skinny wooden chopstick deep down into the dirt every other day. Before watering, pulled it out. If it felt damp or had soil stuck? Left it alone. Dry as a bone? Time to water. Poured water slowly right onto the dirt until I saw a little run out into the saucer below. Waited ten minutes, dumped the extra water sitting in that saucer. Huge change. No more guessing! Seriously, use the chopstick trick.
Food for flowers? Fish juice saved it
After a week looking less dead, thought maybe it needed food. Dug around under the sink. Found an old half-used bottle of some fish emulsion fertilizer that smelled like low tide. Mixed like three drops into my little watering can. Fed it that weak tea. Waited. Nothing exploded. Good sign. Did it again ten days later. Then… little buds! Tiny pink things pushing through. Nearly screamed. Kept doing the fish juice mix every couple weeks, super weak.
It actually bloomed pink again!
Woke up two days ago. Walked into the kitchen, coffee in hand. Saw proper pink flowers! Actual, healthy, pink flowers on the plant I thought I murdered. Felt amazing. The leaves are darker green now, no yellow. Firm and happy. Not crispy. That ugly pot and my weird dirt mix saved it. The light spot on the stool works perfect. Chopstick testing stops my over-watering habit. Fish smell totally worth it.
Honestly, just paying attention to these super basic things totally brought my pink Flowerpot vp9 back. If my dying mess can bounce back? Yours definitely can.
