I dedicate this song to my Nana.
The winter proved to be difficult on my plants. I don’t have many, just three, but only one made it through the season unscathed. My banana tree, which I called ‘Nana’, took it the worst. She started dying as soon as the weather turned cold. She basically refused to hibernate like the websites about caring for banana trees claimed it would. Before she flatlined she produced three new shoots. I don’t know if I make a mistake when I transplanted her or if I was giving her too much/not enough light or water. Either way, she’s in a better place now.
My paddle plant did much better, but is still suffering. Two new shoots developed over the winter, but almost all of the large leaves on the main stem fell off. You can see all the white scar-like marks on the stem are where the leaves fell off. The remaining leaves feel soft and delicate. I fear this plant is dying and I’m not sure what I can do. I’m going to start putting in on the balcony during the day to hopefully get greater sunlight and bounce back. It used to look so nice. It had huge leaves with deep red highlights. Now it’s mostly stem and pain.
My final plant and most hardy was my triplet of succulents. Granted in order for these to die you almost need to trying to kill them. They grew about an inch over the winter and still look and feel healthy. When I bought them they were packed tightly together in a very small pot and I was worried that when I transplanted them and separated their roots that I damaged them. It turns out they enjoy their space and they still remain very close friends. I’m not sure how large these kids will grow, but they have plenty of space. If they decide they want to grow closer together, I’ll leave them. If they grow that large I can’t imagine how I could transplant them without causing too much damage to their roots.