There is no doubt about it, killing a plant is a real bummer. But don’t feel too bad, everyone has done it. Any gardener that tells you they’ve never killed anything is either lying or hasn’t been gardening for very long.
My Coleus Topiary
Last year I procured a small cutting of a pretty unusual variety of coleus. I babied my cutting. I gave it special fertilizer. I sprayed the leaves with watered down seaweed extract. I turned it 90 degrees each day so that plant would grow lopsided. When it was big enough to start pruning into a topiary, I used a pair of bonsai snippers I had around (from when I killed a bonsai). By the end of the summer, it was 18 inches tall, had a nice thick, straight trunk, and a full, beautifully shaped ball at the top.
The first 6 weeks of Fall are pretty warm in Southern California, so I left the coleus topiary outside, with plans to bring it inside when it got cold. In most parts of the country, coleus are annuals. But with a little TLC, they can be tender perrenials here. I have one near my front door that has been there for two and a half years.
I think you know where I am going with this. I forgot about my coleus, and one night it got pretty cold. I accidentally left my coleus in an unprotected spot that first night of low temps and didn’t notice for a couple of days. By the time I found it, there wasn’t much I could do. The leaves had liquified, and it was mostly just a bunch of stems. Over the next few days they shriveled, and within 10 days the plant was dead.
RIP coleus topiary! I didn’t mean to kill you…
The Death of Kaikit’s Nasturtium
I am a total beginner gardener. I planted two nasturtiums seeds in a pot about 6 months ago. One of them grew really fast and well. Then the other started growing. And when they were about 15 cms tall. They were all entangled around each other. In an attempt to untangle them, I broke one of them. I was really heartbrokened, as it was one of the first plants i have ever planted. I tried to tape it back. Stake it. But still I had to watch it die. My lesson learned: I should have just left it alone in the first place. Now the remaining one is thriving and flowering. But the empty space next to it always makes it look a bit lonely.
Abigail’s African Violet Bites the Dust
When I was 12-1/2 my family moved. One of my friends gave me a beautiful African Violet as a going-away gift. I loved the flowers and the plant, but didn’t have any experience with or knowledge of them, and of course the little tag that comes with them doesn’t tell you much.
I kept it alive for several months, but shortly after my 13th birthday it started looking a bit sick. This was in the middle of winter in Iowa, and I thought that maybe it was feeling stifled, being cooped-up inside all the time. Maybe it needed some fresh air. I opened my bedroom window where the plant was sitting– letting the crisp, cold, North-American winter air breeze over the leaves of my tropical plant. The window was only open less than an hour, but the next day my plant was completely dead.
My mom tried not to laugh at me when I told her what happened. I felt really bad, almost as sad as I had felt when my pet cat was hit by a car. I determined to learn how to take care of flowers from then on, and began poring over the gardening magazines at my grandparents’ home. (I soon learned that African Violets are one of the fussiest house plants available, which made me feel somewhat better.) Gardening runs in my family, so maybe I would have developed an interest in it without this sad event happening, but this felt like a turning point in my life. I maintained a flower garden all through high school, and just started vegetables this year. (I’m now 27.)
Have you ever killed a plant? Receive absolution for your inadvertant killing by admitting to your sins in the comments! 
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Over the years I have lost many plants, never set out to kill them, its trial and error most of the time. I lose a small part of myself every time I lose a plant.
I have also had the pleasure of reviving near dead plants, my friend gave me a dead poinsettia 4 years ago and with care in a few short weeks I had the plant green and thriving, it has grown to 3 feet in height and width, than last winter while I was at work one of the neighborhood kids removed the cover I had on during a freeze and the next afternoon the leaves were black, well I was heartbroken instead of pulling it out, I cut the plant down to the soil I figured I saved her once by spring she was growing than over the summer I clipped a piece have a new plant as well and this year the poinsettia is 3 feet tall once again.
Oh I have a long, long list. If it isn’t a whole series of unusual African violets that got spindly tall, it’s numerous houseplants infected with out-of-control infections of white fly, spider mites or even fungus gnats. My most recent ones were a slew of cacti who all contracted a colony of mealy bugs. Sometimes you just have to say goodbye to save the rest of your green friends.
Deb–It’s amazing how many plants will come back from the brink of death!
Sar–You’re right, some plants need to fall on their sword for the sake of the rest in the garden.
Thank you, Fern and all! This topic hits home. Ever since I was given a small potted cactus garden as a teen and managed to kill it, I’ve regularly had plants die on me. I was a garden-interested kid who grew vegetables with my dad, but somehow on my own, I didn’t water the cacti once and they drooped and died. Just this fall, I planted pots of Icelandic poppies, along with pansies, and we had a little hot spell (perhaps coupled with inefficient water on my part – again) and the poppies didn’t make it.
Today I intend to plant bulbs and, this being a deck garden, I’m probably going to have to sacrifice some of the nasturtium that’s taken over the containers just to get the bulbs planted.
I just noticed that you could divide the word “plantslaughter” two ways: plant slaughter (which is what you meant) or plants laughter. Either is appropriate for this humorous post!
Fern, you used clippers on your coleus that had bad juju from the bonsai! You should have done a cleansing ritual on it to get rid of all the negative vibes.
So here’s my story: it’s not about my plant but my friend Theresa’s. When I moved to Austin in 2001 from New Braunfels, Theresa gave me a potted pittosporum. It was huge and beautiful and I had it for a long time. Then for some reason, I had a period when I just didn’t take the proper care of it and it slowly died. A few weeks afterwards, Theresa was coming for a visit. She said she couldn’t wait to see the pittosporum because it was given to her by her first boyfriend’s mother, like, 15 years ago. Oops.
After ignoring the slightly below zero temps outside, reality hit one morning when I finally took a good look at the deck. Everything was frozen, because it simply got even colder.
I have to write a apology post to my perennials, yet again.
Jen
B”H
I’ve got a “brown thumb” — I’ve even killed snake plants, which I’m told is not easy. I dd grow a wonderful lemon tree — from a seed — never had a lemon on it and I kept it in a plastic garbage can (it outgrew a sour cream container and a small wicker trash receptacle — I put the plant, wicker and soil, into a garbage can filled with soil). I had it for probably 10-15 years, the new leaves each year were fragrant. I would keep it outside in the summer and in our basement (with fluorescent lights) in the cold mid-Atlantic winters. But it finally drove my Mom so crazy that I got rid of it. (The only plant I ever grew…. weep, weep, weep….)
I’ve tried twice to grow purple potatoes — my best friend told me they grow like wildfire — but she was talking about Nevada — I tried our backyard, annoyed my brother-in-law (who, with my sister, owns the house we live in) and grew a few necklace bead sized potatoes. This year, I tried growing them in a huge container with soil — nothing happened, even with all the tons of rain we get….
Hehehe oh the plants that we try to grow but they just won’t be friends with us. Fickle. My story is very simple, Sage attempt 1, dead in a few months, sage attempt 2, even quicker death, sage attempt 3, ditto, sage attempt four, surviving a lengthier time, but slightly brown!
I have to admit that this has happened to me far too many times. As you know recently I left my night blooming cereus outside too long and almost half of the leaves turned brown. I’m so bad and this is one of my favorite plants too, shame on me! Luckily it doesn’t look too bad but I think I already stunt it a little. I’m trying bulbs again and I hope I won’t be called the bulb killer.
I’m so tempted to try orchids too.
Let’s just say I push the boundaries of the drought tolerant nature of plants. If it lives in my yard, it can survive on seasonal (when I’m good about it) water.
I didn’t know that the diffused light from my skylight wasn’t enough for the seedlings I started…over the entire summer…so half of them never made it to hardening off on the back patio :/
Also the coreopsis I got (which is supposed to do extremely well in our dry summers and with neglect) didn’t make it two weeks in my strawberry pot
what timing…I killed a plant today, so I’m still in mourning. It was a beautiful tillandsia (they’re AIRplants! how hard can it be!?) that I bought with some graduation money. I guess I overwatered it or something, because it started growing mold. now it’s in the compost. RIP.
Mary C- this summer I watched as a gopher devoured a coreopsis from below, right in front of my very eyes. might have been the first time I wished i had a shotgun.
Don’t feel bad Trina. I killed an air plant recently too. They’re marketed as easy to grow, but I think they’re a little persnickety.
Usually I kill stuff in the spring, anxious to get everything outside I forget to cover, at night, the tender things in pots. Sometimes just the tops of the plants get frosted but occasionally a big frost comes and everything is black the next morning. I’m actually getting better, bringing everything inside has become a ritual now until the weather has stabilized. The time between frosts is so short up here 3-4 months.
this fall I repotted a phalaenopsis that iv’e had on my desk at work for 3 years. last week it lost 2 leaves, so i brought it home only to find that the entire rootmass rotted and all that was left is 3 leaves. it found its way to the trash barrel 10 minutes ago. it was the only orchive i was able to get blooming every year.
plants die. they have death built into their genes. most of the plants we grow are built to die every year. i grow things i know won’t succeed because of my soil, my water, my conditions, my own habits, you know, just to see how it goes/for the experience. i think dealing with the death of plants is part of having them around. it’s like saying you shouldn’t get a kitten cause someday you’ll have to bury your cat, or you should never fall in love because you might get divorced. growing a seed provides an opportunity to have an experience with something that is going to live (and die eventually, even if you “do it right”). there’s no sadness in that for me.
Great attitude Jess!
Melanie–The great thing about gardening is that there is always another opportunity to try and do something better next time.
Bob–Sorry to hear about your orchid. I have one that puts out plenty of leaves but never flowers. I almost wish it would die I am so frustrated. I give it special fertilizer, I’ve tried moving it (currently it is in my bathroom window), but no flowers. It’s a stingy little plant.
Fern,
what kind is it? i think the only reason my phal rebloomed is because my office closes for a week during the holidays. during that time the temperature is lowered considerably and there is no light. shortly after that it would send up a spike. i am actually kinda relieved that it is dead, as i wasn’t really fond of its flowers.