Plants and love lessons

Maybe because it’s been too wet here in the UK to be out much in the garden, but I’ve been taking extra care of my house plants recently. So it’s a joy to revisit this gorgeous New Yorker documentary video of Ched and Maria Markovic’s shop, the Noble Plant shop in New York.

As with everything to do with gardens, there’s so much going on that just the plants. I love the description I found online that the film is a sort of ‘Odd Couple’ in the flower district, but that’s enough from me, enjoy the film and here’s the prose poem I wrote after watching it..

Love, cherish and above all, listen to your plants

You lift the watering can

as if you’re in a state of worship,

each raindrop is your tongue

loosening the scaly skin

of what you haven’t said

for far too long. Bla bla bla.

You peel away a dead leaf,

press fingertips against the spike

of a cactus which flowers

almost despite its cracked pot.

You have created paradise

but how easy to slip

off the edges, like the businessman

who brushes past plants

without noticing how they bloom for him.

You take the beauty of this world

for granted at your peril.

Stop, says the weeping fig,

listen to me. Turn to the light

and tell me what it is you need.