Reaching Toward the Sun
Tending plants taught me to pay attention.
To slow down, notice light, respect seasons, and understand that we need each other to thrive. Healthy growth depends on the right conditions, steady care, and time. Through caring for plants, I learned to care for myself like any living thing whose reaching relies first on rooting. What began on a sunny windowsill became a lasting way of living, one rooted in patience, stewardship, and deep connection to the natural world.
I was searching for sanctuary.
Growing up in the inner-city of Chicago, connecting with nature was a challenge. Green spaces were few and far between and, generally, they were more a testament to city-planning and modern landscaping than they were to the natural world.
I remember walking north to Wells street in the Old Town neighborhood where, in the short span of three blocks, three shops carried houseplants and fresh cut flowers. Tucked into rows of towering apartments and palazzo style two-flats were thousands of strange and wonderful specimens I had yet to encounter.
It was always warm and humid and smelled like earth inside these magical shops. In winter the windows would steam with secrecy and beckon me and my curious senses inside. This was my first foray into the fascinating world of botanical diversity.
In retrospect, the shop owners must’ve seen me through every haircut and fashion-phase I went through as a kid, that’s just how often I’d visit. It wasn’t long before I developed a distinct appreciation for caudiciform plants. A caudiciform plant develops a swollen, woody, or fat base (a caudex) for water or nutrient storage. Something about these “chonky” plants delighted and inspired me. There wasn’t an abundance of space at home, so it was fortuitous that many of these caudiciform plants were slow-growing cacti and succulents.
The perfect fit.
I cared for my windowsill collection and soon became fascinated by plant flowering and reproduction. I would hand-pollinate my plants and admire the new offspring I helped create. I also propagated plants by taking cuttings and dividing them, learning how new life could grow from a single stem, leaf, or root.
Any chance I had, I visited sprawling cactus nurseries out West in the desert. Eventually, I even went into business myself, selling some of the houseplants I had grown at home throughout the Chicago area.
To this day, I keep my collection of bulbous houseplants on a windowsill. Some of these slow-growing plants are less than five inches in diameter and are about 20 years old. It’s no surprise that my favorite vegetable to grow is a bulbous beet, a small nod to my enduring fondness for chonky caudiciform plants.
