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Sally Harrop's avatar

There seems to be a small army of us stealing plants and bits of plants to rescue! The unknown one from your MIL is a Tradescantia zebrina I think, and the German one looks like one too, but perhaps just the green version, it's hard to tell from the pic. You can cut off the happier bits and stick them in a jar of water (right way up). They will root very readily, then you can repot them. They do need to be kept moist, but are quite forgiving. I have pinched off many of these ragged ends from plants in garden centres ...

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Amy's avatar

The mint story made me chuckle!

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Layla O'Mara's avatar

Me too 😂

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Live Learn Change's avatar

Oh I love this Layla and fabulous to know you are a fellow plant thief! Love them all but especially your Chinese money plants ♥️

We are going away next week and I am thinking about houseplant survivability. A conversation with my husband started like this: "well I don't really mind if they don't survive I mean they're nothing special" and ended up with intricate stories about where each had come from (cuttings, gifts, sentimental moments in time etc) and realised I have to find plant-sitter as a priority!!! x

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Layla O'Mara's avatar

yes! it is like having little pets… I love most of mine because they are so plucky and survive a relative amount of neglect. There are these little watering plugs you can get to put into the soil for a week of water I think … I’ve got a friend coming as house plant and pet sitter (who incidentally often ‘steals’ cuttings from me and then sends me pictures of them in their new habitats too)

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Clare Mulvany's avatar

!! Love this... the plant smuggler!

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Layla O'Mara's avatar

exactly! I love the story of the girlfriend smuggling mint in her knickers! x

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Gráinne Stark's avatar

Your mother in laws plant is a tradescantia…I only know this because my writing room is filled with cuttings my father gives me!! He is a horticulturist by trade and a fellow plant thief by nature 😉

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Layla O'Mara's avatar

Ah ha, thank you Gráinne.

I’m glad I’m not alone in my sneaky stealing☺️

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