Manifesting Energy with Plant Names
You aren’t supposed to be able to kill a snake plant. That’s why it was among one of my first picks as a newbie plant mama. At the time I was using some variation of the plants actual name to name my plants. I certainly wasn’t going to name my snake plant snakey; I wanted to disassociate the name snake altogether.
I believe in the the Law of Attraction which states something like, ‘Energy attracts like energy. Be the energy you want to attract.’ So I actually did some naming research and finally came up with Imara, which means ‘strong’ in Swahili.
Imara healthy and green on picture day!
Imara dying of thirst and loneliness.
Imara propagating in water and regaining her strength.
Snake plants don’t need to be watered often and it was approaching a month when I noticed that Imara’s leaves were splayed and her green wasn’t vibrant. She’s the only plant I keep in the bedroom, so she doesn’t have much company and not much light, she only hears from me, “good morning” and “good night”.
Sadly, I had to take off three leaves that were yellow at the root. Then I rinsed the soil from the roots before putting her in water to propagate.
My daddy has a green thumb and I’m the newbie using the big words. Last time I was home, we were talking about plants and I said something about “propagating” a plant. He said, “What are you talking about when you say propagate? Root?”
Yes, I was talking about rooting. I’m certain he rolled his eyes as he does when I tell him about using a moisture meter and having a whole excel spreadsheet with my plants names and whether or not they like to be misted. I’m also sure my green thumb great grandmothers didn’t use the word propagate. I probably learned it from watching YouTube videos.
Meet Juanita
Every time I go home for a visit my daddy says, “You see anything you want?” I usually say no and he keeps asking until he offers something I actually do want and I say yes.
His snake plant was one of those offers I finally said yes to. He acquired this plant at least 25 years ago and I didn’t notice her with any interest until last year. He offered it to me a dozen times saying, “You can’t kill it.” But I didn’t have plants and I didn’t want it.
I don’t know if daddy used the phrase, “It doesn’t bring me any joy”, but that’s how I understood it. So yes she was coming home with me. She was on his back porch looking sad anyway. I brought her in to cool off and the next day he and I went out and I found her a new “dress” (pot) to perk her up.
He made a few name suggestions, one being the name of his great grandmother. I immediately said no to that. Neither she or his dad were the nicest people. It’s something he has made peace with, but that was not the name for my plant. I wanted a plant name associated with good vibes.
Then daddy said, “Juanita” as if it was settled. Juanita was his Aunt. Sister to his father, daughter to my great grandmother and she had a sweet spirit. When my dad was a little boy she’d let him come over on Sunday afternoons to hang out and listen to music. She introduced him to Blues. Juanita died before he was a teenager but he remembers her fondly. So this was the perfect name for this plant, keeping it in the family.
Another Snake Plant
I originally had Imara in my office. When I moved her to the bedroom, I loved her there, but I missed her from my office so much, I bought another one. Her name is Makidada (a nod to the movie The Color Purple) which means little sister in Swahili. I call her “Maki”.