Kansas State University - Royal Purple Yearbook (Manhattan, KS)

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Vegetation: apartment living ' s link to environment The magazine article said that every really with-it apart- ment for 1975 should be filled with greenery, and the apart- ment in the pictures was a student ' s dream. Even though the physical aspects of my shabby second-story Manhattan, Kansas. penthouse didn ' t resemble the sleek, well-furnished look of the magazine ' s Manhattan, New York, apartment. I figured the liaison could at least be vegetation. When the KSU Horticulture Club advertised Hs plant safe early in the fall, I decided this would be a great opportunity to buy a couple plants and begin my apartment ' s gradual trans- formation into a local botanical garden. Partially because I ' m a sucker, and partially because I can ' t resist a good buy, I found myself leaving the Hort Club ' s sale with a few more than the two plants I had planned to buy — nine more to be exact. The apartment was instantly transformed into a sec- ond-story greenhouse. Really, though, the apartment did look pretty good with all the plants lacing the window sills. I was proud of myself for taking the environmental, ecological, natural, and vogue step into the world of plants — I knew Better Homes and Gardens would be proud of me. Although many of the articles I had read on the care of plants preached the therapeutic benefits of talking to the plants, I did feel a little silly asking my Spanish Ivy how it Was doing every morning. To avoid giving it an identity crisis, I began calling it Pedro, and I really think it enjoyed this per- sonified touch. Maybe because I never could figure out what kind of plant the one on the kitchen window sill was, and therefore couldn ' t assign it an ethnic name, its health began to sink around Thanksgiving. and during Final Week bit the dust so to speak. I really felt like a failure, as if Hort Club would never let me into another sale because I had let one of its off- spring pass on. My guilt and problems were compounded with the onset of Christmas break, and home being 1000 miles away. The fea- sibility of making it through fWA ' s security check with my ten plants-and my family greeting my brood with joy at the other end was slim. So, I recruited a plant sitter for the break. And, the must have really had a way with words as the plants all looked much bigger and healthier when I returned for sec- ond semester. I felt somewhat like a grandmother on her annual visit to see the grandkids, remarking, My how you ' ve grown. Your hair vine is so long! My greenhouse attendant role for second semester went along fairly well. I even ventured into the hierarchy of plant care and repotted some of my oxygen makers, and pinched back another. Although it was touch-and-go for awhile with the Coleus I pinched back, all were in good health by Spring Break time. In fact, I was mildly insulted when my plants looked so good after I left them in the hands of the plant sitter again over Spring Break. The least they might have done was wilt a little. The big obstacle course the plants and I have yet to face is the challenge of the drive to that home of mine 1000 miles from the penthouse. My only consolation when thinking of the impending sojourn is that I didn ' t purchase the rubber tree that beckoned me on my Hort Club shopping spree. A five foot passenger without knee joints might have provided quite a survival test — for both of us. Providing the vegetation and I make it home, I am in a quandary as to what to do with them when I transform from student into summer camp counselor. I just don ' t know if Pedro could make it in my knapsack.

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