Growth Is Slow and Silent

Do you like lemons?

I decided to try growing some lemon plants from seeds in hopes of developing some miniature lemon trees/bushes as houseplant curiosities.

Seven seeds were sown into a medium sized pot with a soil mixture. For weeks, nothing happened.

I feared that perhaps the seeds were suicide seeds or unable to take root and sprout.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, tiny sprouts broke through the surface.

Now, I have seven young lemon plants at a range of heights. Two were quite strong and tower over the others.

One plant was a tiny runt getting little to no sun because of the leaves of the strongest and tallest. Another was barely an inch taller than the tiniest lemon plant

Today, I gave the tiniest lemon plants their own containers to encourage them to grow more. The others are very robust and will soon need to go to larger, separate containers.

It’s funny, as more foliage appears and I wake to see verdant leaves and new growth, I wonder how long it will take for these plants to bear any fruit, if any. And then, that might take years.

Keeping and growing plants is a wonderful exercise in patience, resilience, and learning that so much progress takes place in silence without any fanfare.

You don’t have to collect a horde of plants or shy away from keeping one plant because you have a black thumb.

Consider adding some color, oxygen, and something tiny to take care of to your life that isn’t a pet or child. 

Get a plant.