A Jungle For My Birthday
For my 21st birthday, I asked for plants. The only problem was, I accidentally asked everyone. My parents. My roommates. My boyfriend. My best friend from work.
I didn't realize it until they all started arriving.
Back then, I lived in an old house off 45th Street in Austin with two of my best friends from sixth grade, three rescue dogs, a grumpy dachshund, and a cat named Thomas who simply decided we were his people one day.
I’d been noticing these tropical beauties everywhere —flowering Bromeliads, Birds of Paradise, giant Monsteras, Orchids, and even Pothos.
My boyfriend gave me a Silver Bromeliad, the kind with the silver-green leaves and a pointy pink flower, in a beautiful terracotta pot. I loved it and put it in my room. He said his mom had something for me too, and he’d bring it by later. After that, my roommates gave me plants, a two-foot Monstera and a tree-like plant called a Mass Cane. By noon, my bedroom looked like the tropical section of a nursery.
My curly-haired friend from work arrived at my front door that afternoon, grinning with a trailing pot of green leaves. I hugged her and placed it near the window in my bedroom along with the others.
By the time my parents showed up that evening, there was barely enough floor space to walk across my room. The room smelled like damp soil and fresh leaves. I put on a blue sundress, ready to go to dinner, and opened the door to see them holding—you guessed it—another plant. This time my face went blank.
“What’s wrong?” my mom asked.
“Oh, nothing,” I said, and led her into my room, where the jungle was taking form. She laughed. “Well, you asked for plants.”
Later, while we were sipping wine on the couch with my parents, my boyfriend pulled up in his little red Honda Civic. The one my dad always called his tennis shoe car. He stepped out with one more plant, a bonsai from his mom.
After dinner, you’ll never believe what was waiting at my front door. A rubber tree ficus, with a red ribbon tied around the pot, a gift from my best friend’s mom.
The next morning, I woke up inside my newly created tropical forest. Morning light filtered through the leaves onto my hardwood floor. The room had been transformed by leaves, trees, and flowers, and I felt peaceful and energized. No wonder I asked everyone for plants; they made me feel better.
Eventually, I spread them around the house so everyone could enjoy them, and so I could move around without tripping over branches.
We spent countless afternoons at Rivendell's in San Marcos, a vegetarian restaurant tucked beneath climbing vines and oversized tropical plants. Service moved at the speed of molasses long before "slow living" became fashionable, and nobody seemed to mind. It was run by a crazy plant lady and her son, and stepping inside always felt like being invited into her world. I remember sitting there and thinking, someday I’ll be a crazy plant lady too. Maybe I already was one.
These days, I see the phrase indoor jungle everywhere, and it always takes me back to that birthday. When life is busy and stressful, don’t you want to come home to a little green sanctuary?
Looking back, I don't think I was collecting plants.I was collecting the feeling they gave me. Years later, that's still what I'm chasing.
But if you're wondering what to get me for my birthday this year...plants still work. Your mom can send one too.