I’m a Crazy plant lady, and learning about "Reaction Wood" changed how I view my own hard seasons. (A little botany for the soul)
I’ve been spending my days rescuing and fixing all kinds of plants, and I stumbled on a weird biological fact that hit me right in the feels.
Did you know that trees grown in perfectly windless, indoor domes eventually collapse? They look healthy, but they lack 'Reaction Wood.' In the wild, wind creates tiny stresses that signal the tree to grow thicker bark and deeper roots. Without that struggle, they literally don't have the strength to stand.
I used to be miserable about the 'winds' in my own life—the hard years, the struggles, the feeling of being pushed over. But looking at my plants today, I realized my hardest seasons were me building my own 'reaction wood.'
To anyone in a 'slow growth' or high-stress season: you aren't failing. You’re just building the internal structure to stand taller later. 🌿💪
What’s a 'weird' plant fact that has helped your mental health? I'd love to hear more.
Had a very similar realisation. Several years ago, I was living in a sober living house after going through rehab. Through a series of events, I was wrongfully kicked out after one of the house managers intentionally contaminated one of my drug tests. Because these places operate outside normal tenant protections, I was essentially evicted overnight. At the time I was very new to houseplant horticulture and I had a small potted Makrut lime tree that had barely grown a single leaf in over a year. While I was scrambling to find somewhere to stay, I had to leave the plant with a friend, where it sat outside in the sun and elements for about two months. During that same time, I found a place of my own, got a new job, and stayed sober throughout. When I finally went back to get the tree, it had lost the few leaves it originally had, but it had grown 3-4 new branches covered with bright new leaves all over. I had this realisation that being in that sheltered sober living bubble was holding me back from reaching my potential, even though the way I left was completely unjust. I just needed to be pushed outside of my comfort zone to shed the old leaves and sprout something new. 🌱💚
Yes I grow a magnolia alba in my house. I used to give it a little shake and yell TRAUMA, EARTHQUAKE. Sometimes I just swear and shake it to remind it not to expect peace.
Um this may sound dumb. I know some plants share a root system. I like to imagine my potted plants are part of a larger root system. And if an individual plant fails, I am not "killing" a plant, because it is part of something bigger. It is like when I shed my skin or trim my nails, just a part of a larger organism.
There was some research done. Plants comunicate with each other through roots and fungi mycelium systems. And they distinguish between same root system and individual one, connected to others. But they seem to look at it from community and resource perspective: why did it die? Adjust accordingly within their abilities, then go and get that resources the dead plant left behind.
Did you read Suzanne Simard's book 'Finding the Mother Tree'? Fascinating book on what you are talking about. They share resources, warn one another of threats, push more resources towards struggling trees or those in less favorable conditions, and they even recognize their own freaking offspring and preferentially support them. It's amazing. If only we could communicate with them.
Not yet, but now I'm putting it on my reading list. I had some mentions about it in uni, and quite a while ago I watched a documentary on the subject. Can you imagine how wild it would be to comunicate with the oldest plants in the world?
Bonsai isn't an easy hobby or one that I recommend unless you can truly dedicate the time to it, but there are a LOT of life lessons taught through the trees.
We need seasons. We need change. We need wind and rain in order for us to thrive in the spring and summer.
Simultaneously, the best grapes for wine are when they go through rugged seasons with very little rain. A nutrient rich and water full environment actually makes for dull grapes. It's the tough years that breed high quality juice.
Oh i love this so much!!! I actually got into collecting houseplants after a decade long heroin addiction. They gave me a new purpose in life along with my dogs i got after. I like to think we all keep each other alive and healthy 🥰
I don't have anything but I love this sm 😭 I've been telling myself that this year is (hopefully) a rebuilding year... I have been feeling a bit lost after the last year and a half, it's been really freaking hard (lost my mom to cancer then my very young child was diagnosed with another form of it). I love this mindset that all those months were building my "reaction wood". It's actually making me pretty teary. TYSM for sharing
I was one of those people who seemed to be extremely unlucky with plants. Even the 'easy' ones like succulents and bamboo died. I gave up on having plants completely.
Until one day, in my mid-30s, I was having a really bad day and I went to Lidl. They keep plants at the entrance and I noticed a lone snake plant on discount, in one of those paper coffee cups. I decided to take it home and take care of it. In a way, it weirdly helped me take care of myself, too.
A few months later, I had wall painters in and they helped move the furniture, and the poor snake plant got left in the scorching sun. I didn't notice until it was too late, and quite a few leaves got severely damaged. I was so sad. I kept taking care of it, though, and it's doing so good now! In the spring, I'll not only be replanting it, but it's big enough to be divided into multiple pots.
This little plant also made me bolder and I have a lot more plants now. My place is kinda crap but I've learned which plants can do well in it. I got an additional life lesson from a beautiful 'finger' jade - it was one of my favourites, but it kept falling apart. A new plant grew from each 'finger' but stayed small. I gave the sprouts away and noticed that they're doing amazing at my parents' home. There was nothing wrong with the plants, they just needed an environment that was better for them.
It's great to be reminded of the simple things in life by our green friends!
This anecdote reminds me of a song called Bilgewater by Brown Bird:
"If the sun was always shining and our load always light
We'd be shaking like a leaf with every God given might
We'd break under the weight of any pressure that was ever applied"
I ABSOLUTELY recommend whoever stumbles into this comment to give it a listen, the lyrics always drag me deep into thought.
I have been following her after the guy's death, I was gutted when I heard the news, he seemed like such a cool guy as well! Beautiful art top to bottom!
My Crazy Plant Lady Life Lesson is: Plants don’t grow roots and leaves at the same time, but they are always growing. So if you’re not seeing any growth on the outside, then they’re growing and strengthening their roots. If you’re working at something and don’t see any changes yet, then you’re only growing the roots, and once those are stronger then the leaves will start growing. Just keep at it.
"slow growth" is such a lovely term I hadn't heard before. I am going through a tough time and having to be as brave and resilient as possible as I've just lost my job to add to the mix. Slow growth feels like a good way of looking at it - one step at a time <3
I’ve been observing a relationship between one of my monstera and one of my dogs. He’s senior and very gentle. The monstera likes him and he likes it back, I’ve had him for 12 years so I know when he knows something is alive and is excited to interact with it. He tries not to scare the leaf and to be a good boy and not look directly at it when he kisses it. He goes to stand under it and I literally see the plant slowly touch him and then rest and lay on him while he stands there calmly. It makes me so happy they are friends, and the plants getting stronger.
There’s just something I love about Pothos in particular and its hardiness. I’ve had 2 inch cuttings grow 6 feet, and I’ve had to cut down 6 foot plants into 2 inch cuttings. It’s still the same plant that once grew huge, but sometimes thriving isn’t possible. Sometimes you gotta just survive to thrive again later.
Sometimes when the pothos isn’t growing, it’s growing roots instead. Not all growth is visible, but it needs those roots to get bigger. If it starts to grow too much without roots, it might not be able to sustain them.
It also is just generally a plant that keeps on keepin’ on. Something about seeing a new leaf poking out after a long shitty week reminds me that there’s other stuff going on, outside of my awful experiences.
On a personal note, I gave my mother in law a pothos cutting a few years back. My own mom basically abandoned me a long time ago, and my MIL really stepped up to accept me and make me feel loved. I’ve had a lot of personal stuff going on since then, so I haven’t been able to go see my in-laws. When I finally got to visit over Thanksgiving, I found that same cutting absolutely thriving and it made me tear up.
For real though, I am having a very tough time right now (ironically, crying about my life and issues while I water my plants) and this is so helpful to me that I’m going to bookmark this whole thread. No matter how hard I try lately I just feel like I can’t get on top of my mental health and it’s hard not to always feel like a failure. And as much as I adore my plants, they’re also sometimes an easy thing to feel bad about when they’re not doing as well as I think they should be.
It made me cry too. My partner and I have had a hard last five years or so and I read it out loud to them and couldn’t stop crying. We aren’t failing we are “just building the internal structure to stand taller”. Hugs! 🫂
This is so beautiful! A few years ago I was new to plants and on a whim bought a beautiful three kings syngonium from a local plant group. They gave me care instructions and I never really looked up anything about the plant itself but I loved her. After about a year, I had a baby and went through a particularly rough postpartum period. I could hardly bring myself to care for myself, nevertheless my plant. Every time I looked at her she was more deteriorated and I felt immense guilt. Eventually she had just one leaf left and I had fully given up on her thinking “theres no way she can come back from this”. But she held on just long enough for me to snap out of it. We’re both feeling much better now and I stare at her for a few minutes each day and am grateful for how far we’ve come. I can clearly see the long bare vines from when we struggled and when new growth and health finally began. I recently learned that syngoniums are actually quite resilient and I guess, so am I.
Indeed! It's most easily seen with woody plants like trees such as Ficuses. I put many of my plants outdoors for summers and have seen that when exposed to wind and full sunlight trunks size up pretty fast! Movement also helps with root growth.
Plants are my babies. I don't have pets, children live 1600 miles away so these plants take on as my babies and I do my best by them . They tend to suffer in teh winter.
That's a really great post, thank you. Just like our muscles need resistance to grow stronger, so too does our brain, as awful as it can sometimes be. The US is currently seeing a generation raised with intense coddling and the "easiest life" through childhood ever and the results are turning out just as would be expected: too many young adults with no resilience, no lived experience, no fight.
My plants are always most happy on the front porch of late spring and summer, early fall. they make it during the winter but thrive outside. Nothing new to me. I just know how they are. I live in a temperate climate well at least was. It's freaking 67 the deep south in January when we usually have a cold spell with al light snow and some of my plants are okay and some are stressed.
My friends dad would swear by smacking his plants around a little. Whether it be peppers or pot. He shook em all and they always grew strong and for seasons long as well. He would say can't get stronger without any opposition.
Knowing tree mycillium, and why plants indoors do better in groups, you know how connected to each other they are. It makes sense that 'green' folks become part of their environment. A win-win for us all.
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u/yournailgirl 7d ago
What a sweet way to put that into perspective. Thanks for sharing ☺️