Kathy & Mike: Willy, the comeback houseplant

For those of you who are unaware, I have a serious obsession with my schefflera, Willy. He is definitely my favorite house plant, despite Mactus the Cactus' cool name and even cooler hot pink flowers. Willy is still my main man - no doubt about it. So, I was pretty much devastated when I all but killed him during our big move this summer.

See, I didn't want Willy to sit in a moving truck, bouncing around with a bunch of furniture and boxes. So, I took him to work with me the day before the move so that I could take him to the house afterwards. Brilliant plan....that is, until I left him in my car ALL DAY! Yep, there he sat, cooking in my 95+ degree car until the president of our board called me on his way out of the parking lot to tell me he thought I might be suffocating a large plant in the back seat of my car.

I took Willy inside, got him a drink, and then ran him to the house after work. I called Mom later and she wisely told me to trim off the dead stuff. I was scared I was going to kill him, but I knew it had to be done. (Yes, I really was this conflicted. I'm telling you, I love this plant.)

I couldn't bear to photograph him in that pitiful state. So, what you are seeing here is a week or two after my pruning. As you can see, he was looking rather bear.

He had some new growth popping up,but it was still sad to see his all-too-bear branches.

The next photo provides not only a wonderful before and after of my now totally revitalized house plant, but also clearly illustrates how slow I am at decorating. haha. Photo above - lovely picture frames with a blank white piece of paper inside. Photo below (four months later) - ditto. haha. Oops.