Curious about Plants: Do They Have a Place in Your Life? and What Do They Mean to You?

“I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow.” - David Hobson, American politician


“I hardly have any spare time! But when I do, I garden a lot - I love plants and flowers.” – Soundarya, American actress


I chose “plants” for this blog’s theme, because I spent a good bit of the morning planting on my new balcony. You may remember that I did have a large garden at the side of my former apartment. And, even though there is space designated here for tenants’ gardens, I decided to grow in pots this year. I can really relate to Soundarya without spare time. However, I am planning to spend time out there this summer.


I am even trying a couple of tomato plants along with the flowers. The plants I chose are recommended for pots and patios, so keep your fingers crossed.


When I searched for quotations, not only was there an interesting variety about the plants that grow, but also many relating to plants for businesses – like auto, industrial, power, and nuclear – which I won’t include. I did allow a few where plant was a verb.


Let’s get started:

• “The ground we walk on, the plants and creatures, the clouds above constantly dissolving into new formations - each gift of nature possessing its own radiant energy, bound together by cosmic harmony.” - Ruth Bernhard, German photographer



• “The historical circumstance of interest is that the tropical rain forests have persisted over broad parts of the continents since their origins as stronghold of the flowering plants 150 million years ago.” - E. O. Wilson, American scientist



• “This evidence is overwhelming at this point. You eat more plants, you eat less other stuff, you live longer.” - Mark Bittman, American author



• “Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.” - John W. Gardner, American educator



• “When man learns to understand and control his own behavior as well as he is learning to understand and control the behavior of crop plants and domestic animals, he may be justified in believing that he has become civilized.” - Ayn Rand, Russian writer



• “Working with plants, trees, fences and walls, if they practice sincerely they will attain enlightenment.” - Dogen Zenji, Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher

And, now some with a different twist – even a bit of humor:

• “Trees and plants always look like the people they live with, somehow.” - Zora Neale Hurston, American dramatist



• “Use plants to bring life.” - Douglas Wilson, American entertainer



• “If we had paid no more attention to our plants than we have to our children, we would now be living in a jungle of weed.” - Luther Burbank, American environmentalist



• “Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.” - Erma Bombeck, American journalist



• “Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.” - Jean Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher



• “My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.” - Mitch Hedberg, American comedian

A few more strong thoughts:

• “My father being an outdoors person, he used to take us on quite a few adventures through the wild areas down there, introducing us to alligators and rattlesnakes and all the trees and plants.” - Jim Fowler, American scientist



• “Nations, like plants and human beings, grow. And if the development is thwarted they are dwarfed and overshadowed.” - Claude McKay, Jamaican writer



• “A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.”- Liberty Hyde Bailey, American scientist



• “A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity.” - Alexander Smith, Scottish poet



• “A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.” - D. Elton Trueblood, American philosopher, educator and theologian



• “A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.” - Saint Basil, Greek saint

So, do you do any planting – inside or outside? I would love to hear about your gardens and why you love them too!