Evening Grain

Ian has an office plant that he brought home recently. It’s an adorable Peperomia orba variegata, also known as the teardrop peperomia. The “variegata” part means that it has variegated colors with a white and green marbled pattern. Some plant collectors love this marbled look and seek out variegated strands specifically.

I am a huge fan of pep plants, but didn’t realize this was a pep plant until finding the tag buried deep in the soil. The foliage is denser than the pep plants I know and the leaves are more narrow with a pointed tip. They do look like teardrops, or maybe tiny shovels.

You might notice the “Mon” sign on front. Ian named the plant Monday as a reminder to water it on that day.

There are some fun stickers he added, too, but I didn’t get them in this photo. There was a sticker of a coffee mug that said “monday” and some other cartoon eyes.

He got this plant last year at the hardware store. It definitely grew since then and is too big for this pot. From the top angle it’s starting to grow lopsided.

This species is so bush-like, too. It needs more room at the bottom to spread out. I had trouble watering it at home because the leaves form this dense canopy. The water bounces off the top and spills.

Here is all the equipment I used. Monday stands next to its new future home, a big blue pot. There are also gloves and fresh potting soil. We are under the watchful eye of Squid.

Step one of the procedure. I moved to a grassy area of the yard. Repotting can be messy with all the loose soil.

I wriggled Monday out of the old pot. I don’t remember potting this plant the first time, but there’s the signature Kristy rocks at the bottom. It must have been a while ago.

The roots are so healthy and strong they hold the rocks up. It was definitely time for a bigger home.

Upon breaking up the soil, it turns out that Monday is actually three plants! What an exciting discovery. It would explain the dense appearance.

I prepared the new pot. Rocks on the bottom, soil on top. But not too much soil. I still need room to add the pep plants.

Here are the three plants replanted. You can tell that one plant is taller than the others. It was probably closer to the window at Ian’s office. It helps to rotate the pot every now and then to encourage even growth.

I meant to take more photos of the repotting process, but the leafy canopy was so thick that you couldn’t see the pot or the progress of the soil anyway.

I rinsed the plant off with the hose to get the extra dirt off. Now Monday is fresh and clean. So green, so healthy!

Update: here is a photo of Monday a couple months after the repotting. We are able to see this photo through the power of time travel, and because I started this post a long time ago then forgot about it.

Monday is taller with bigger leaves. The new leaves are very sparkly! They absolutely dazzle when you walk by. I hoped to catch this on photo, but it’s hard to tell on a still image. Maybe a video would be better.

I noticed this sparkly effect on flowers before, but not leaves. When you look closely at flower petals, many have tiny sparkles to attract bugs for pollination. Kind of like landing lights on a runway. The sparkles are a sign of a happy plant. So keep an eye out for this cool effect the next time you see a flower!