What does it mean to have a "green thumb"

I don't mean literally, I mean do you think there are people that have sort of a natural innate ability to grow things, while others can do everything right and have nothing but bad luck?
I'd be interested in your perspectives . . .
A friend who I know to have an appriecation for aesthetics said "I have a black thumb" and I want to know if there's hope.

For years (literally) my grandmother would show me her plants from the doorway she kept her Christmas Cactus in. I wasn't allowed in the room. The entire family would joke about the fact that if I looked at a plant too long it would fall over dead. My mom was bad too, but not as bad as me. I probably had the worlds record for killing a plant in the shortest time possible.

My grandmother, on the other hand, can make ANYTHING grow. You take her a shriveled up stem in a pot, and in 3-4 weeks the dang thing is blooming. (even if its not supposed to lol) Her Christmas Cacti bloom every month. She hardly ever does anything with her garden now (she is 82 and her health isn't the greatest) but she has flowers EVERYWHERE. She has hollyhocks that reseed themselves and come up faithfully every year, she gets more bleeding heart babies than she knows what to do with, I can not think of anything she can't grow. When she was younger she had a 2+acre veggie garden, and I still remember spending hours picking and shelling beans and peas. Shebegs people to come dig stuff up andtake it, because she has no room for it anymore, and she doesn't plant anything new.

Since I've gotten older I've gotten better. I have raised alot from seed this year, and seen it bloom. Houseplants... not so much. My african violets are screaming for someone to put them out of their misery, and so is my wandering jew and spider plants LOL My mom now has outside flowers also, but still cannot keep house plants alive either. I dunno, maybe some of us grow into our gardening ablitieis. I know 5 years ago, if you had told me this would be my passion today, I'd have laughed myself silly :)

Just MHO

Janis

Edited cause I can't spell and remember something else LOL

This message was edited Aug 19, 2005 1:17 AM

Having a 'green thumb' is an inherent quality. I did not know what it was till I bumped into DG 4 years ago. I saw people mentioning it, but never knew what it was. AS time progressed, I realized I did have one!! It's for that reason why my mother used to ask me to plant any new arrival from my hands. "You give it to him, the plant will grow well" -- she used to say. May be because of the care we take not to damage the roots and the intent of the mind at the time of planting that goes to contribute to a 'green thumb'. Now again, my aunt who had seen me gardening asked for a Basil plant and she wanted me to put it in a cover myself. I was so happy to hear that.

Dinu

Those are fun stories Janis and Dinu! I think a green thumb is a well learned balance between love and neglect. And maybe it also has something to do with a sensitivity to patterns (ie I keep watering, but it's still dying....hm maybe it's not the water?)and intuition. That's what I've been noticing within my family's thumbs. :)Susanne

I think that having a "green thumb" works the same as most skills or talents: you have people who have a strong, innate ability, and catch on quickly (what people think of as "talented" or "gifted"), and you have people who find it harder to learn a skill, but through persistent study and practice are able to achieve results similar to the people with innate ability.

So, in a nutshell--yes, hoa_rd, I do believe there's hope! : )

Rhonda

This is a cool, thought provoking thread. I think on some level the "green thumb" must be true. From the time I was a small child I loved flowers. I had a Tonka pick up truck that did'nt interest me much till I filled the bed with dirt and planted a weed in it that I thought was pretty! My mother always told me I reminded her of her own mother (who died before I was born) because of my love of plants, and thought I inherited her ability to grow things. When I'm walking past something that needs water, it's almost like when you think you've heard someone call your name, and the plant somehow gets my attention. I always jokingly tell friends "that one's hollering at me to water it", but that is kind of how it seems. Do any of you have similar experiences?

I guess if there is such thing as a green thumb, I've got one.
There's nothing you guys have said that doesn't have the ring of truth, from the rational, scientific explanation (sensitivity to patterns, understanding that roots are sensitive) to the intuitive/ paranormal (plants just call my name).
We have a huge part of our brain devoted to spirituality, and my gut tells me that's where the "plant center" is. There could be some force or energy in play that we don't understand.
Or, to shift back to cold, hard science, understanding of how to grow plants has gobs of survival value, so it stands to reason that some of us would have a certain level of instinct for the job . . .
I've had way more fun reading the thoughts here than I expected-- keep 'em coming!

I think about this a lot. All my life, I've said I have a black thumb cuz I could kill even a pothos. But now that Im in my late 30's, I've decided I'm going to educate myself learn to grow plants. There is a lot of trial and error, but the rewards are so satisfying. People who see the garden, say "oh, you have such a green thumb!" but it hasnt come naturally, I've just really been working hard on it. I sure wish I could hear the plants. I listen hard, I do. Maybe some day...

I know a person that has learnt the art [I must add, and science] of Pranic Healing. I wanted him [some years ago, when I moved in to where I live now] to plant a Polyalthia longifolia sapling for me. He is no gardener, but he is the one who has influenced many people into Homeopathy and other para-normal sciences. He told me at the time of putting that plant in the ground that if we concentrate on the plant for a couple of minutes a day, while watering, it will grow better. He also told me that experiments have been conducted to that effect with similar watering and size of plants. The one that received the ' pranic attention' had grown better. I used to do that experiment myself and for much of its growing period, this one had more branches and was looking healthier than the other 4.

The man I refer is not an ordinary man. He prays regularly [and properly, I must add], has a disciplined life, works as a banker and is an amazing human being in all. I could feel the energy in his palm of his hand when he came to assist a septic wound in my feet some years ago. I may tell more about him later [may be with a picture]. For such transmission of energy, one has to practise those things strictly, else, the effect is lessened.

So, there are certain things that even science cannot prove properly, yet results are noticed. The 'green thumb' is one such example.

Dinu

Dinu, I totally agree. Just because science has'nt figured it out does'nt mean It does'nt work. It was'nt that long ago in history that magnetism was considered majic-it just was'nt understood yet. What a wonderful gift to know such a disciplined holy man. Thank you for sharing, Neal.

P.S. There's a book written in the 60's or 70's called 'The Secret Life of Plants' that is a great read. I think Tomkins is one of the authors names. It follows experiements done connecting electrodes to plants and following the readings. The plants reacted when the fellow doing the research thought about watering it!

There was one experiement where they put 2 of the same plant in a room. A group of volunteers drew straws, the one who drew the short one was to destroy one of the plants. The remaining plant was hooked up to take readings and the group were to walk in the room one at a time. When the plant "killer" entered the room, the readings went crazy!

That's interesting . . . I bought my home 3 years ago with a gigantic sycamore shading 1/2 of the property (50x70 ft. lot); the neighbor lady would sit in her window and think bad thoughts about it, and would tell me it needs to be cut down-- never really with any solid rationale (just a depressed person); at some point I made it clear to her that that tree would be cut down over my dead body, and I haven't heard much about it from her since. I often admire it and think about what a great tree it is, and think about how nothing will touch that tree as long as I'm alive, and I swear it looks about 10 times better this year than it did two years ago. Obviously there are a lot of factors, but I think I do need to check out that book (what's the deal, no-one has had time to do any more research since the 60s?)

That's so cool! I had a similar experience with a tree; a large Asian pear (I think, the pears were round?). It was at the corner of the yard of my house when I bought it. That first spring I did'nt even realize what it was. I suspected it was a pear from the leaves, but I've never seen one as big and there were no blooms. I quickly admired the tree, planted things under it, and the next spring it was a solid white cloud of blossoms, covered in butterflies. I gave away 27 grocery bags of pears and many still rotted. It bloomed and fruited every year I lived there.

I don't know about the influence bad thoughts have on plants! About ten years ago my sister dumped a schefflera on me that she didn't want to transport to N.C. I hated that thing. It dropped leaves constantly. It was sprawly and ugly. It was always thirsty. I moved it to different locations so I wouldn't have to look at it. I thought nasty things about it everytime I walked by it. It survived, in spite of my neglect.

Last fall, thinking about how much water I would have to drag in from an outside faucet in the freezing cold, how many dead leaves I would have to pick up, and how unattractive it was....I took it for a little walk and pitched it off the deck. It's probably thriving in a landfill somewhere. I couldn't kill it.

Never have figured out how I can toss a $10 bouquet after it is past it's prime, but nurture (badly) a pot full of ugly or ten years. What color does that make my thumb???

mean n green, LOL

Several years ago, someone gave me isis rizomes. I planted them, and they didn't bloom the next year. I thought well, maybe the move will set them back. Didn't bloom the next year either. This went on for 5 years, and one day while in the yard, walked by this spot and stopped and said to them, "if you don't bloom next year, you are so out of here, you little explitives" The next year they were so full of blooms, that they bent the stalks!!. Moved and left them 10 years ago, and when I pass by in the spring, notice that they are still thriving. So if negative thoughts have an effect, positive thoughts have even more effect. I talk to all my plants on a daily basis, and everything, even in this hot dry weather is still beautiful.

LOL I have some daylilies like your irises ~ established clumps cast off from my Mom. After 3 years, I did the same thing; 'no blooms, you're outta here!' This year I had lots of huge, pink blooms.

Maybe they just had poor self esteem and thought I never noticed them. Or maybe they're like an errant child ~ give them a little scolding and they realize you really do care. :)

Moby, maybe just wanting attention and willing to get it by good or bad behavior, just like kids!!

Exactly!

My mom did that one year with some kind of lilies. She watched them faithfully every spring, they would come up, and then die back and she would watch every day, sayig after they died back, it was supposed to send up another stalk or something. I remember watching her do this every spring for probably 10 years. She would be so disappointed when that bed stayed empty after the inital stalks died off.

One year she had had enough, when they sent up the first stalks, she weed eated them off at ground level. Couple weeks later they bloomed for the first time. They bloomed every year after that until the bed was torn out to put a sidewalk in (next owner) LOL

Janis

I'm definitely gonna have to get an 'attitude' with some of my misbehaving children. LOL

After a winter, spring, summer and now fall of reading, working, working, reading.......I believe that a"green thumb" is at the end of a lot of elbow grease.

......and most definitely faith. We can only plant and wait for God's grace to help the seed germinate. It is an exercise in optimism as well.......

Well, this thread has sure taken a unexpected turn . . . "getting an attitude with your plants" :-)