97.9 The Hill’s Staff Picks: Garden and Plant Edition

Elle Kehres (Reporter)

I will be the first to admit that I am not a huge plant aficionado. Although, I am pretty adept at keeping succulents alive. Pictured below are my two current buddies: Will (left) and Bert (right). My roommate initially had had a matching Ernie succulent, but sadly without proper water and light – he passed.

Now, I have no idea what kind of succulents these are. I feel like many places that sell these bad boys are very bad at giving any kind of care information (my household gets the majority of our leafy children from Trader Joe’s).

What I have discovered is that I cannot kill Will if I tried. He has spent weeks on my windowsill without water and has somehow still thrived. Bert on the other hand is very temperamental and will yell at you if he gets too much or too little water. Now that both of these guys live on my work desk in the newsroom (next to my festive holiday piggy), they get a moderate amount of light and get watered a couple of tablespoons once a week. They seem to be faring pretty well under these conditions. Plus, I think a little bit of green is a nice addition to any work environment.

Green thumb ranking: Give or take a 6 (on a good day). If you give me a plant, I will most likely not murder it – albeit only if it’s not too finicky.

Aubrey Williams (General Manager)

My favorite plant is a Ficus who has been part of my family since I was 10. So literally, this guy is older than most of the 97.9 The Hill staff. He was purchased by my sister, Myra, for 99 cents at the Georgetown Safeway in DC. He was priced incorrectly (supposed to be $9.99) but because it was their error, they honored the price at the register.

And because he (my plant) is a child of the 80s, his name comes from a character in a sitcom of that era called Too Close for Comfort, starring the inimitable Ted Knight. For those who may recall, he played the part of a cartoonist living in San Francisco with his wife (Murial!) and his two grown daughters. They also had a tenant, in their home, played by Jim J. Bullock. His character was called MONROE FICUS.

So, my favorite plant is named Monroe (reminder: he is a ficus). My Monroe has offspring made from cuttings. They are “Baby ‘Roe” and “Tiny ‘Mon.”

He is totally temperamental. He loves NC summers, and thrives outside in the humidity. He comes in for the winter, gets all persnickety and drops ¾ of his leaves. So, currently, he has moved back outside, but hasn’t regained his summer luster just yet.  He looks a little bare and sticky. But I still love him. And he has lived a long time.

Green thumb ranking: My green thumb ranking falls on the lower side of the scale (5ish?) but somehow, some way, Monroe has been with me through the thick and the thin.

Kenny Dike  (Billing, Broadcast Traffic, & Sales Operations Manager)

Attending the Moonlight Gala at the North Carolina Botanical Garden on June 1, 2019, I took a relaxing sunset walking tour of the gardens. Strolling through the Piedmont habitat, the Sandhills habitat and lush NC Mountain habitat, I turned the corner into a courtyard, as the trees opened to the evening sky, there before me, was an amass of  water gardens, and to the thrill of my inner 12 year old self, the carnivorous plant collection. My eyes were drawn to one particular section within – an array of what must have been over 100 Venus flytraps. I could only think one thought, “this is super cool.” I shared the experience of seeing the traps in about every casual conversation I had for the next couple of days and, to my surprise, a week later my partner, being her amazing self, gifted me my very own Venus flytrap (purchased locally in Chapel Hill!).

A younger version of myself, would have immediately started watering the thing and sticking a pencil in one of the traps to try to get it to bite and see what happens, but fortunately, at my age, and as someone whose thumb wouldn’t turn green if I painted it, my first step was to start doing some research and see if I could get any pointers on how to care for this plant without giving it the fate of the few other plants and goldfish I have attempted to care for in my life.

In doing my homework, I learned some incredible facts about these plants. For example, even though they are the worlds most famous eating plant, mainly because of a gal named Audrey, the Venus flytrap is native only to a small part of the world, and that happens to be just to the east of us, in the coastal Carolinas. Here are a couple other cool facts:

• They have learned how to tell if the prey they have trapped is a creature full of nutrients to consume or a leaf to spit out – let me remind you, this is a plant!
• Venus Fly traps have traps because they are native to boggy areas that have poor soil. Unable to get nutrients from good soil, like most common plants, they developed their traps to catch insects as a means of acquiring supplemental nutrients to survive. This also means, with proper care, they can survive in your garden without eating, but man, it is cool when they do!

Even though they are a carnivorous being, they are sensitive little suckers, thus require some key maintenance steps.

• • Soil:They are native to swamps and bogs, so they are designed to live in this environment. For a home plant, grab some peat moss from the store for planting, instead of potting soil, your fly trap will feel at home.
  • Water:they will only survive on distilled or rainwater. Tap water will kill them. They can’t handle the minerals, this is the death of most house-kept fly traps. In the summer, keep the moss damp, but don’t soak them.
  • Sun:They love it as much as David Hasselhoff, give them a lot!
  • Winter:Here in the triangle, we live just outside their native habitat, and being so close, the fly trap can survive the winter outside with minimal effort. Cover or bring inside if there is going to be a couple days in a row with temps under freezing. If it is just one night of sub 32 temps, they can handle it, as they go into dormancy in the winter.
  • Dormancy:In the winter, the fly trap will go dormant. It will look like it has died, and some people will discard of it. It is actually just preparing itself to survive the winter. During dormancy, you can water it about once every 2-3 weeks,  and keep it from freezing, and that’s about it.

My fly trap, purchased around June 8 of 2019, thrived all summer using these guidelines, and in early November when winter conditions began to set in in North Carolina, it went dormant. I watered it on occasion throughout the winter, and 2 weeks ago, started back up on a regular watering schedule. And just this week, the plant has started to bud! Looking forward to seeing the new traps come alive for the summer.

Green thumb ranking: My green thumb was a 0-10 before this venture, but now I’d say I’m up to a solid 3!

Victor Lewis (Digital Content Editor)

My two plants are a Money Tree (Pachira aquatica) and a coffee bush (specifically, Coffea arabica). They don’t specifically have names, even though I feel like they should. I inherited the money tree and I’ve grown my coffee bush from seed. Maybe one day I’ll be blessed with a bean or two.

Both are very sun-seeking, so they get rotated each time I water. I keep ’em in big pots so that it’s easier to maintain proper hydration with fairly deep — but infrequent — watering. My plants get thirsty sometimes, but it builds character. It also lets me control growth a bit and keep an eye on them. I think the biggest part of growing plants is just paying attention to them. It’s a special sort of mindfulness, and a skill I’m trying to develop.

Green thumb ranking: Maybe one day I’ll be as good at it as my Dad — you should see his deck full of potted (and lovingly-maintained) peppers and tomatoes. I think if I was going to rate myself 1-10 on the “green thumb” scale, I’d have to go with about a 5.5. A solid starting point, but I’ve got a ways to go.