Vine & Vogue

Have you ever thought that you can’t own the plant of your dreams because it originates from somewhere tropical and you live where winter drops to freezing if not further? Or maybe you HAVE bought your dream tropical plant only for it to die on you within a few weeks? I know the feeling.

Recently, I bought a plant that I’ve been dreaming about ever since I saw it — an Alocasia Jacklyn. With it’s arrow-shaped leaves, vibrant emerald coloring, and tiny little hair textures, I knew this unusual plant had to come home with me.

And come home with me it did! It joined my little plant family in my bedroom next to its relative Jimmy (an Alocasia California I bought on sale and nurtured back to health) and seemed to adjust rather well. That is, until I researched more and realized that Miss Jacklyn here gives people some trouble based on her…finicky temperature desires. Turns out, Alocasia Jacklyn’s need humidity and a lot of it. They prefer households with medium to high humidity, and they reward such endeavors with bigger leaves and well, not dying.

Now, I know it’s common among plant parents to break out that spray bottle and start misting their plants the second they read “humidity”. But in actuality, misting your plants only temporarily increases the humidity, and you’ll need to repeat everyday if not more than once a day to really make a difference. Instead, most people use a humidifier, which constantly pushes out water vapor in high levels to mimic a tropical, humid environment for your plants.

It’s important to note that you don’t necessarily HAVE to go out and buy a brand new humidifier just for your plants, although that will work. For me, I couldn’t rationalize spending money on a large humidifier that’s sole purpose would be for my plants. I wanted something that would be compact, sleek, and not be an eyesore to the rest of the room, while still producing enough moisture to keep my plants happy.

So what did I end up using? An air diffuser that was sitting unused in my closet. If I didn’t put any essential oils in it, it would be small enough and produce enough vapor to keep little miss Jacklyn happy, as well as the rest of my plants. And it worked! Now my current collection is stored in the corner of my bedroom and up along a climbing shelf, so the small amount of vapor put off does the job. However, if you have a larger collection or plants spread out across multiple rooms, using just an air diffuser may not work.

Still, I was satisfied with my moment of versatility and quick thinking. I can’t wait to use this as an excuse to add more plants to my collection!