January 22, 2015

 I wanted to share with everyone how my Wax Plant is doing.

 It has grown so much since the last time I posted. It now has three blooms on it.

 One is in the middle of opening up right this moment!

 It is so beautiful to see the individual blossoms up close.

 They open up like little pentagons.

 And you can see on the stem how many times it has blossomed before in this specific spur.

 Right above this bud, on a different vine is another spur ready to bloom.

 This one has bloomed less.

 I am praying it will make it. It seems to be drying out more than the other two blooms.

 The other bloom is already open and filling my room with the most beautiful aroma!

 Its star blossoms bring me so much joy!!!

 One thing I have found very interesting though and that I see so metaphorical...

 Is that right after the most beautiful blossom, the vine dies and withers. Just like, our trials in life yield the fruit and blessings of Christ that are both beautiful and a wonderful aroma to God as our sacrifice of love.

And not only that. The leaves right above this blossom, are three times as big as all of the other leaves on the plant. The trial and the bearing fruit... brings healthier foliage.

OH PRAISE BE TO GOD WHO LEADS US THROUGH OUR TRIALS!

WHO HELPS US BEAR FRUIT!
WHO SHOWS US OUR GROWTH!
WHO FIRMLY ROOTS US IN GOOD SOIL!

WHO HELPS US BECOME A BLESSING AND A WONDERFUL AROMA OF SACRIFICE TO OUR MIGHTY AND WONDERFUL KING!

August 11, 2012

My plant is growing so much!  Though we have had 115* temperatures, the plant is still living and staying strong!  Yay!  As the plant grows, it is lengthening in its vine structure.  However, as the vine structure, grows, the plant is bowing low.  I find that beautiful.  The plant, which searches for light for growth, is growing...and growing to bow low.  That is how we grow to be humble.  Bowing Low.  Toward Light.  

July 14, 2012

The heat has been so bad in Southern California.  Over 115*  I pray that this plant continues to grow and cope through the heat!

June 16, 2012

I have been having a blast the last couple of weeks watching this plant just shoot out and grow in its stem length.  The plant is finally growing in the vine-type structure that it is known for.  What a beauty, eh?!?

June 9, 2012

My plant's stems are growing really long very fast without growing many leaves.  And now, the leaves are growing at different rates from each other.  These leaves seen here are a pair; however, they aren't growing as fast as each other.  One is extremely large, and the baby one is taking its time to catch up in size.

May 12, 2012

May 4, 2012 was my 27th birthday.  It was a day where we celebrated my life.  This plant as it unfolds new growth and new life is a celebration that I have yet to tire of appreciating.  I love how it continuously unfolds and grows to reach for the light so it can continue its journey.  That is this plant's whole purpose.  To continue to grow and seek more light.  What a beautiful purpose.  What a beautiful celebration of life.

May 5, 2012

In Ann Voskamp's book, One Thousand Gifts, she describes a moment when she is disciplining her child.  In the moments before the actual discipline, she is praying that God will open her eyes to see what she can be thankful for in that moment.  She looks at her son and thanks God for his scars, his curls in his hair, his eyes, etc...  As she looks at her son through these eyes of prayer in the moment, she writes, "The unfamiliar becomes the real and the real is only seen by the lovers and I count him as grace, I embrace now as love, and I know how lovers alone see the true.  Love is not blind; love is the holy vision."

I love this plant.  But to me, it is not just a plant.  To everyone else, they see what is familiar about it.  It is a plant.  However, to me, it is a form of love from God, to me.  The unfamiliar part of this plant...who gave it to me, what it means to me, the perseverance it has had in coming back to be healthy, all of these things and more have become real in my eyes.  I see them as grace...as a gift.  I love this plant.  And yet, it is just a plant.  To me, it is a gift from God.  I, the lover, see the true.

I have added a filter to this image this week, because this is how my eyes see this plant.  This isn't the familiar and reality of what it actually is to others.  But through Photoshop, I have kind of given you a glimpse of how I see it.  It is almost angelical, kind of like this holy vision Ann talks about :)


To view Ann's blog, click here: http://www.aholyexperience.com/

April 21, 2012

Wow!  Look how wonderfully mature my plant is getting!  Yay!

April 14, 2012

This picture shows all the colors of my Wax Plant!!  When the leaves are growing, they appear this brown color on the left.  The dark green on the right, is the color of the leaves...the way they are supposed to be.  The middle bright yellowish-green color is the color of the leaves that were getting too much light a few weeks ago.

Since I moved the plant away from the windowsill, it is growing SOOO much slower than it used to.  Oh well, AT LEAST it is still growing, right?  :)

April 7, 2012

Since I moved my plant from the windowsill to an area a little further away, the leaves have turned dark green.  Also, it has slowed down immensely in its growing.  However, it still is growing!  Yay!  So, I think the Wax Plant can actually get TOO MUCH sunlight.  It will turn the leaves neon yellowish/green like they became there for a while.

March 17, 2012

We have a rainy day here in Southern California; however, it might be good for my plant to get a break from the heavy sunlight we have been getting lately.  This is where I have moved my plant to.  It is about 2 feet away from the window and should get less direct sunlight.  My leaves tend to be bright yellowish green, and I am wondering if by moving my plant further from the window, I might get darker green leaves.  I think the hard direct sunlight is kind of bleaching the leaves to be a lighter green than normal.  We shall see!

March 10, 2012

Southern California is leading into the season of LOTS OF LIGHT!  I might end up needing to move my Wax Plant into the corner of my room so it gets a little less direct light.  I have approached my plant multiple times this weeks feeling its pot and dirt very warm.  Maybe too warm.  I don't want to cook this dear thing =)  But look how quickly these two front leaves have grown in 1 1/2 weeks.  Just plain neat how quickly this plant grows.

March 7, 2012

Sometimes, we see resemblances in small things that encourage us to continue on in our efforts.  Today, I saw these two new leaves in the back of my Wax Plant and thought they reminded me of ballerina dancers.  This is a photograph I took of ballerina dancers during a performance from http://www.heartsinstepdance.org/  This life is so beautiful, and sometimes we are just dancing, stretching out toward the light.  It is beautiful to watch this plant dance and reach the sunlight for growth.  Hopefully we can all do that in our own lives.  Reach for the light, so we can see in the dark places in life.

February 29, 2012

There was a news report this week on a flower from the Ice Age that Russia was able to revive: http://tinyurl.com/6ptqkf9  Whether or not this story is true, why is it that reviving living things is so intriguing to us?  When we lose things, it is often in those times, when we realize how important those things were to us.  I am constantly reminded to be grateful for the things, people, and blessings I have in my every day life.  It is not common to be able to have dear things revived.  I hope you are grateful for what you have, and also that you have time to make that gratefulness known to those who need to hear it if the things you are grateful for are people.  Time, is the most precious commodity in this life.  Let's not waste it.

February 22, 2012

Sometimes the biggest mistake we can make, is not starting.  The two new buds are emerging where they typically emerge.  So, there will be a stem coming from this area.  However, the interesting part, is to view that there is still a bud for where a leaf should have been.  It makes me think that there might be a leaf there in a few months.  It will be fun to see if it comes.

February 15, 2012

Ann Voskamp writes in her book, One Thousand Gifts, "I may have always known that change takes real intentionality, like a woman bent over her garden beds every day with a spade and the determined will to grow up something good to strengthen the heart."

Something good to strengthen the heart.  That is exactly what this plant does for my heart every day.  The new leaf that is growing in the spot of the old leaf is now larger than any of the leaves next to it.  It is actually rubbing against the others, fighting for space and a place where it, too, can receive light.

February 8, 2012

This is the leaf that grew out of the spot where the one leaf fell off months back.  It is interesting that only one leaf grew in this spot.  Maybe it is in the genetic code, because it grew where one leaf fell off, maybe it can only grow one leaf there.  I don't know =)  But I have noticed that the plant grows leafs in pairs everywhere else except here.  At the base of this leaf, you can see that it might grow a stem of its own coming out of this leaf. Look at the gorgeous color contrast between the leaves and the pot.  So beautiful =)

February 1, 2012

I saw a preview for an upcoming movie that said the beautiful thing about a seed, is not what it is, but what it can become.  I am fascinated with this plant for its potential and seeing it play out in real life time.  Look how much this plant has grown!

January 25, 2012

Unbelievable!!!  Look how much the two baby leaves grew over one week!  If you notice, what I called "growing pains" in one of the previous blogs seems to happen to all of the new leaves.  The other leaves that used to have the wrinkling have flattened and thickened out to be beautiful strong leaves.  I am curious to see if this new bent leaf will open up, or if it will soon lead the stem growing out of it to bend over the pot.  The direction that it is bending, is the direction of the sun when it sits in my windowsill.

January 18, 2012

It is amazing to see how much these two leaves grew in just one week.  The leave which is the smallest of the two has to grow at a faster rate than the larger leaf in order for it to even compete with size.  The green central vein is so pretty contrasted against the yellow shade of the young leaf.

January 11, 2012

This plant is the most resilient plant I have ever seen.  Sometimes when we see strength and determination in the small things in life, we are encouraged ourselves to exhibit these qualities in our own lives.  This plant continuously surprises me in its will to survive.  I have photographed here the two baby leaves that we have been watching grow.  They are still growing and are about to unfold into their own separate leaves.  The most surprising thing seen in this photograph, though, are the two baby leaves emerging out from the bottom of this image.  This is the spot where a leaf fell off months ago.  Now, after having a few months pass by, two new leaves are going to grow out of where the one leaf fell.  That is soooo amazing!!!  Something in which I thought was so devastating has now become a situation where double the blessing has been delivered.  It reminds me to continuously hold on to hope, even when life seems terrible, we never know the blessings that are in store for us if we hang in there.

January 4, 2012

This is the sprout of which two leaves are going to emerge.  If observed closely, you can see that there is one larger leaf hovering over the other leaf.  It is so beautiful to see two leaves embracing before they unfold into their separate leaves.  I have observed that this plant has an overall hair, or fuzz, covering it.  I have no idea why that is =)  However, it is gorgeous to view this plant up close and see the two intimate leaves before they grow apart.

December 21, 2011

2 1/2 inches!  The newest and youngest leaf is now the largest leaf!  Isn't it amazing how the youngest is the strongest, healthiest, and more mature?  I am thrilled by the rate of growth this plant is having.  2-3 inches is the maximum length the leafs on the Porcelain Flower plant ever get.  That means mine is getting there!  Yay!

December 14, 2011

I would like to call these growing pains.  The leaf that was wilting last week still exhibits signs of crinkling in its edges this week.  Nonetheless, the leaf continues to grow.  Thankfully, it seems I won't be losing this leaf.

December 7, 2011

And this is where we are at today!  Alive and growing strong.  I will be posting more photographs, until this plant is large and totally healthy.  If you want to keep coming back, you can, this blog is more for me personally, like a flower journal.

It is interesting to me to watch this plant grow.  I learn so much from it.  You can see the two scars each stem has in one of its leaves.  The bottom leaf of the bottom stem, and the bottom leaf of the top stem.  I think the scars will always be there, but I think over time, they will be less noticeable.

Today I about panicked.  I have had this plant sitting in the beautiful sunlight of a window pointing West.  I have had it sitting behind the screen for its whole redemptive life.  However, yesterday, I moved it into the full sun, without the screen, and the leaf on the bottom left started to show signs of shriveling.  I sure hope that it doesn't fall.  I hope it can grow through this and be strong.  Again, I have concluded, that this plant hates! change.  Even moving from behind the screen to without the screen hurt one of the baby leaves.

Right now my plant has 10 leaves, and for my heart's sake, I sure hope it keeps growing healthy, and one day, blooms one of those beautiful blooms I recall from the plant that this one was cut from.

October 28, 2011

After seeing how well my plant was doing, I was not afraid to cut off ALL of the dried up and dead leaves that had been that ugly yellow color you saw in the other images.  My plant's new stem grew to have two leaves just like the first one.  And again, just like the first one, its mate died and fell off...but I was hopeful yet again, because the one leaf survived.  Then, out of this leaf, two more emerged!!!  And then, two more emerged from the other leaf!  At this point I was thrilled, my plant was growing!!!!  I then noticed that the plant had an interesting quirk.  A leaf from each stem had a cut in it.  A little nick, you can see it really well in the bottom leaf of this image.  I thought, wow, what a metaphor for life.  We grow with the scars from our past still a part of who we are.

October 13, 2011

You can see in the foreground, that the first new leaf had grown to its full size.  Before it reached this size, there was a second, a mate to this one.  However, it was too weak, and fell off.  I have noticed that this plant grows new leaves in pairs.  When the mate of this one fell off, I was so scared I was going to lose the whole plant again.  After the surviving leaf had reached its full size, I noticed there was a new stem growing...in the back!  This was so exciting!  I hoped so deeply the plant would survive.

September 27, 2011

After traveling 2,300 miles, my cutting totally died.  Before this, the plant was totally healthy and had 3 stems each of which was long and had many leaves on it.  I had been informed that the plant had never bloomed and yet I was so hopeful that one day I might see beautiful flowers from it.  But then, like I have found out through research, the worst happened for the plant, change.  The 2,300 miles was too much for this plant to handle.  It had previously lived in an air conditioned environment, and had now spent 1 week traveling across America.  The leaves all turned to yellow, dried up, and died.  I was so sad, I cried for days thinking that the plant, which was such a dear gift, died within days of receiving it.  But I held out hope.  Each day I would survey the plant and cut the leaves that seemed to be totally dry, and I left the partially dry leaves on hoping that they would help the plant grow back.

After coming home one day from visiting my friend who had given me my cutting, I came inside the house and saw this.  New Life.  My heart, which was down at the time, was renewed by the plant coming back to life.  What an encouragement.

The Story Behind This Story

This is the Mommy plant in which my plant is a cutting from.  This plant has only flowered 3 times in its life, and these photographs are those 3 times.  I have researched a lot about the Porcelain Flower plant, and I have come to find that the plant sometimes needs 7 years after its last big change in order for it to flower.  Lots of light, cool temperatures, watered once a week, and most importantly, consistency, is what the plant needs the most in order for it to bloom.  The stem in which the flowers bloom should never be trimmed if the owner wishes to have flowers again because this plant flowers on the same stem that it has flowered on before.  I was blessed to see these 3 blooms of my friend's plant before I moved away with my precious gift of its cutting.