They lost my birthday present!

It may not look like much, but this is it. My belated birthday present! I’m a bit of a plant nerd, and although I have lost many plants after moving to Germany, I am now finally at a point where I can say that my plants are not only stable, but firmly on the way up. Although we only have roof windows, as we live in an attic apartment, it seems that our home office room – which now doubles as the mom and baby room – has perfect light to grow my aroids.

I’ve always been a big fan of aroids, and my big favorite at home is my good old Monstera deliciosa. It always makes me feel like I’m in a jungle, without having to make significant air miles.

Now the plant pictured above, is also a Monstera deliciosa, but then one of the variegated kind. It’s still rather rare, and you are unlikely to find it in the average garden center or flower shop, although cuttings are now offered quite regularly on the internet. I had been drooling over pictures of these plants for a while, and I guess my wife had had enough of it. She decided to give me one. Needless to say, that made me quite happy.

It always feels tricky sending living things via DHL, but there was no realistic way to get this plant here otherwise. And so we just had it shipped here in a box. Of course DHL had arrived to our house yesterday before we came back from our trip, leaving only a note, but no box. (My neighbor refuses to open the door for other people’s packages.) And so it was that I had to pick it up at a DHL center this morning. Guess what… They had lost the package. Or well, they couldn’t find it the first time around, this morning, and told me to come back at a later time point. Interestingly, a second parcel by the same driver had been dropped off already. The second time I went to the DHL shop – late afternoon – they again told me it wasn’t there. I insisted that it should be there, and they allowed me to help search for it. I found it quite quickly. It was on a pile of unsorted boxes, next to the sorted rack. I guess sorting and reading is not their favorite aspect of the job. I don’t know. I’m just happy I got my plant. A sigh of relief.

For now, I’ll let it be where it is, in it’s sphagnum-filled pot, so that it can overcome the first shock of transportation. Soon, I will plant it in a bigger container, so it can grow some new leaves, and get nice and big, just like its new roommate. I’m curious to see what it will look like in a year or two…