Best of Steve Goodier: When You’re Root-Bound

This post first appeared in our blog here.

Like potted plants, people can become “root- bound.”

We have a beautiful “Christmas Cactus” which I gave to my wife as a gift 28 years ago. It has accompanied us through tough years and good times. It has lived with us in four different communities and has been present during the raising of our family. But it almost died.

As the small plant grew, we transferred it to a larger pot. It did well for about twenty years, but then began to die. It seemed that no amount of feeding, coddling or attention helped. We finally plucked a few leaves,
re-rooted them and started over. Read more

Steve Goodier - When You’re Root-Bound

Like potted plants, people can become “root- bound.”

We have a beautiful “Christmas Cactus” which I gave to my wife as a gift 28 years ago. It has accompanied us through tough years and good times. It has lived with us in four different communities and has been present during the raising of our family. But it almost died.

As the small plant grew, we transferred it to a larger pot. It did well for about twenty years, but then began to die. It seemed that no amount of feeding, coddling or attention helped. We finally plucked a few leaves,
re-rooted them and started over.

We could barely remove the now-dead plant from its pot for all the knotted and intertwined roots. The beautiful succulent was dying because it outgrew its environment. The plant changed, but the container it lived in stayed the same. Read more