This weekend, a bully got busted at our house. The discovery, bad enough to begin with, grew worse and worse as the details unfolded. It turned out that the formerly struggling vinca vine, which has been sharing space with the thriving ivy geranium inherited from Mom years ago, showed no mercy to it’s pot-mate once the vinca finally regained it’s strength this summer.
To make matters worse, it took me months to catch on to what was happening. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t notice the vinca vine was bullying the geranium, making it give up it’s lunch day after day all summer and into fall. The situation finally came to light when I took the flower pot indoors earlier this month. In past years, the geranium hadn’t lost so much as a leaf when moved inside. A few days after this year’s relocation, and it barely had a leaf left.
So on Saturday, some repotting was in order. A few minutes of digging in the dirt, and the bully was exposed. The vinca vine root system had invaded every inch of dirt of the pot they shared. Some serious pulling, and even a little hacking, were required to release the geranium from the vinca’s rooty grip before both plants could be settled in their new home.
Now, you may be wondering why both plants live in the same pot once again. You’re thinking the two needed to be separated so the vinca vine won’t pick up right where it left off. But truth be told, I’m running out of both flower pots and sunny places to set them, so this is the best I could do.
Rest assured, I’ll be watching the vinca vine like a hawk. At the first intimation that it’s stealing lunches again, it’ll get planted in an ice cream bucket and moved to isolation. Hopefully, things won’t come to that. Because all winter long, I’ll model compassion, true friendship, and how to establish and maintain good boundaries to the vinca and the ivy geranium. I think that’ll do the trick, don’t you?
