I killed a plant today.

This plant and I have been together for a long time. It was a centerpiece at a wedding shower when my uncle got married in 1988. It is a cutting from an ivy-type plant that my mom has. Her plant is gorgeous. It is gigantic and cascades over a hutch. My plant – not so much.

It has been a problem child since I got it. It never grew very big. It would hit a certain size and then seemingly panic and wither back to a few leaves. No heroic interventions helped. It has been started over from a few leaves several times.

It has the best pot and sits in the best window in the house. It wasn’t happy. This time when it decided to start dying back I decided it was time to let it go. I put a Do Not Rescusitate order on it and sat back. It occured to me that I’ve had this plant for 19 years. That’s a good long life. It has lived in several states and been pampered. Heck, it outlived the marriage it was in honor of by almost 10 years.

So this morning I took it to the compost pile. Looking at it lying there I could only think, “There are a few good leaves that could restart it.” I told myself firmly to walk away. I replanted a basil plant into the pot and put it in the sunny window. It is time to move on.