100 Feet

That's how much I chopped off my philodendron tonight. It was a chore and a half to get it all down and out of my kitchen window, but when I realized just how much vine there was, I took the extra time to untangle just so I could measure. :)

But let me back up a minute...This is the plant that was given to me, I believe, when I left the preschool I worked at, which makes it about 5 years old.  When it was given to me, of course I thanked my coworker, but internally my mind was already dreading the plant funeral I would inevitably give...My forgetfulness has killed a cactus after all.  But those few pretty leaves it started as lived and grew despite me...and, giving credit where it's due, probably in large part *because* of Daddy, who tends to check on it and my aloe more frequently than I do.

When we moved into this place almost 3 years ago, I'd already transferred it to a larger pot, and had started wrapping the leafy vines around the pot...I didn't know what else to do with them, and I liked the vine-y look.  But when we got here...something in the air or something, I dunno what...the thing took off.  At one point last year, I had leaves the size of my hand.  My HAND.  Here's proof:

 One of my giants...

For comparison, this is a more normal size...

So I did some more twirling, found and detached an errant vine that had rooted to the window caulking (!!!) and even put it up through a hook above the window to give it some space.  It looked so nice and full and bushy.  I was very proud of it--not for my efforts, but for its ability to thrive.

But then...maybe we started forgetting to water it, or maybe it was just getting too big for its britches, but it started to lose leaves, even as it kept getting longer.  All those big beautiful leaves eventually fell off, leaving a bare stem looping up.  I didn't know what to do with it, so I kept watering when I remembered and watching it make more leaves and lose old leaves and get more woody vines all over the place.  It wasn't very pretty anymore.

So I (finally) started researching how exactly one cares for these plants...and the idea of cutting it scared me.  Every cutting of a plant that I've gotten from people has died.  Dunno what I'm doing wrong there, but I haven't had success once yet.  And I didn't want to kill the thing after having watched it grow so nicely.  But it was overwhelming my window, my poor aloe was encircled 2 or 3 times over, I couldn't even get to the sink faucets without pushing a vine aside.  So today (again finally) I headed for the store and found, among other things, some dirt designed for cuttings (who knew?  Not me!).  My afternoon project was ready to go.

I discovered 3 things as I tugged it all down and apart...first, that one of the 3 vines I cut reached a distance of nearly 50 feet by itself.  50 feet!  To think that all that, plus 2 other vines (for a whopping total of about 110 feet) were all crammed up there in my little window...Yikes!  Second, that 3 new vines had sprouted near the bases of the original vines...I wasn't just salvaging the ends of monster vines...I was freeing up space for the main base to keep doing what it does best...Not what I'd expected, but ok then!  And third, that roots apparently like curtains as much as they like window caulk...  I pulled it all down, untangled, cut to where the leaves ended and vine began, washed the old pots, readied the new ones, put in the new soil, planted the old and new plants, watered, watered, watered, wiped down the windowsill...It was a lot of work, but it sure looks a lot nicer up there now.  :)  I'm just hoping everything survives...it's ready to go if it wants to...but I still need to remember to water it...