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I love plants, but I do better with them when they can take care of themselves. Still, I'm the caretaker of the houseplants in my household. The plants that I manage to keep alive are the ones that need less frequent care. We've had spiderplants, pothos and something I know as a wandering Jew plant for as long as I can remember and have more recently added two types of Christmas cactus, three varieties of kalanchoe, prayer plants, aloe, and a handful of others. I help out in our garden as well, but I'm never the one fully responsible for it.

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Huckleberries have a bit of a mythological status in Montana, but they continue to be a food I love to pick and eat directly from the shrub. They are special because they don't grow everywhere and like higher elevations and mountains, so you can't get them without going out on a hike. We'd go on huckleberry picking hikes with my dad's extended family when they came out to Montana in the summer. Each berry is small but packs a tart punch of flavor.

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I remember loving to collect vines, flowers, and anything pretty to make wreaths for my hair. I felt like a wood's fairy.

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My mother and my grandmother were my plant mentors growing up. They both had a real gift for nurturing. I learned so many things from them. The things that most stand out to me is how they truly loved their plants. They were like family members. They taught me that plants could feel and hear. They would talk and sing to their plants and taught me to do that as well. I learned that plants had specific needs such as lighting , temperature and even placement. I learned about love and empathy just by watching them tending to their plants.

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When I was a child we would vacation in Puerto Rico every summer. My grandfather owned a farm and we would roam and explore. It was wonderful!!! I remember my cousins and I picking Acerolas, they were both sweet and tangy. They looked like cherries. I had never tasted anything like them before. I looked forward to visiting every summer because picking and eating Acerolas was like hunting for treasures. We also collected mangoes that fell from the trees and fresh coconuts. It was like being in paradise. There were countless other fruit and vegetables to pick and enjoy.

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I remember as a child walking to school in the Spring and the smell of a beautiful Magnolia tree. I remember the first time I smelled it and thinking it smelled sweet and soft. I asked my father where that wonderful smell came from and he explained all about the magnolia tree. I still love the smell and it reminds me of my childhood and early morning walks to school with my father.

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On my very first trip outside of New York City as a child there was a tree with tiny, green apples. I would "pick" them off the branches or from the ground and recall being very excited by that.

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There was a tree in my backyard growing up that always shed something that looked like pine needles. I guess that it is a version of a pine tree but I am not certain. I have a lot of memories of looking up at the branches to the sky and also sweeping up the needles if my family was using the space to eat outside.

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We grew persimmon trees, a fig trees and a peach tree in our backyard in Texas. The branches would sag from the weight of all of the heavy persimmons growing. The fruit was so sweet and we'd see squirrels trying to get their arms around the giant fruit and run off at the same time. Our fig tree also had so much fruit that we couldn't eat all of it, but we would try the best that we could! The rest would be turned into jam or left for the animals in the suburbs to eat. Our peach tree never gave us very much fruit before it died, unfortunately. We got 5 tiny peaches in its entire lifespan, but I still remember the as the sweetest peaches that I have ever tasted.

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My mom had jasmine bushes growing right by the front door. Every time that we would leave the house to go somewhere, I would get a whiff of the wonderful jasmine fragrance. Then I would stick my nose in a blossom so that the scent would stay with me all day.

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Tien Caceres - I remember in 4th grade, my friends and I were always a little weird and a bit rambunctious during recess. There was a pretty large area of trees and plants growing that weren't well maintained. We discovered a plant that grew tiny little spears, like burrs, and we removed them from the plant and chased each other around throwing them at each other. I also remember that there were mistletoe growing at the tops of the trees and we would take branches and knock them down for fun. They were removed shortly after, most likely because of our very creative play shall we say. It was such a blast to be able to play and discover so freely, even if we were playing with poisonous plants. 

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Tien Caceres - I remember in 4th grade, my friends and I were always a little weird and a bit rambunctious during recess. There was a pretty large area of trees and plants growing that weren't well maintained. We discovered a plant that grew tiny little spears, like burrs, and we removed them from the plant and chased each other around throwing them at each other. I also remember that there were mistletoe growing at the tops of the trees and we would take branches and knock them down for fun. They were removed shortly after, most likely because of our very creative play shall we say. It was such a blast to be able to play and discover so freely, even if we were playing with poisonous plants. 

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I had a tree in my backyard which I would climb and sit in, pretending i was riding a horse. Eventually I had a rope. Our yard was a long stretch of emptiness except for two trees so they formed the bases for our play and imagination.

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I avoided poison ivy as a child! I grew up in a house with woods and a pond in the back so walking through the woods was a regular part of our day and someone getting poison ivy happened a lot more often than when i talk to other people about their childhoods! I still remember the pink paste (calamine lotion) all over my legs. Ugh!

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My parents would buy and grow tons of marigolds for garlands. I think they have a significance in Bengali and sufi Muslim culture. The yellow ones wouldn't do. We always searched for the bold orange types.

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I love to tend to houseplants, and my partner and I chose our first apartment together in part because of the south facing windows! It's my dream to have a large tree inside an NYC apartment one day. I have easy to care for plants like pothos, rocket snakes, dieffenbachia. I have tried to tend to orchids, a bonsai, and succulents too. My greatest success has been this lithops, aka, my butts, which just keep multiplying and both startles and interests me.

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*YES!* Loving my Mammillaria cactus. It’s flowered and fruited twice over the past six years, and last spring I tried harvesting the seeds. It’s been about a year and they’ve germinated but are still really tiny.

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The Jewish holiday Sukkot is my favorite. It involves a lot of rituals with plants! Pictured are a lulav (left) and etrog (right). You shake them with a myrtle and willow branch during services. I always loved to smell the citrusy etrog and feel it cool in my hand. I’d forgotten so I’m reading up a bit on the reasons for shaking the four species to all directions. There are a lot of interpretations, and one that I like most is that we shake in the cardinal directions to bless the Earth and precipitate good winds, then the up-to-down direction to withhold “bad dew” at the start of the rainy season.

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Yes! I would always see what we would call, "helicopter seeds" that would slowly twirl towards the ground. I'll have to admit, I needed to look up what they're really called which as samara fruits.

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While growing up, my grandparents had this beautiful garden in their backyard. Whenever I was over, I would help to water the garden. But my favorite part, was searching for cucumbers that were ready to be picked and put in that day's salad!

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I have TONS of houseplants. But my most recent undertaking has been my little garden. I planted different seeds last spring and haven't touched this all winter. I was so surprised to see that my lettuce survived the cold and is growing nicely.

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Growing up we went apple picking every Fall. We would spend the entire day out. When we got hungry we always would just pick an apple from the tree, wipe it on our shirt and eat it.

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As a child I loved the smell of a Lilac tree. We had one in my backyard growing up. I loved in the spring when it would bloom and I would always pick them off and make a bouquet for my mom.

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My husband and I went on a couples trip a few years ago to Jamaica. It was beautiful! While there we took a tour of one of their forests. They have many interesting trees, plants and insects that we do not have here in the United States.

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When my sister and I were younger, we would play in the backyard for hours! We have a dogwood tree in our backyard and in the fall it would create these red fruits (which are edible but not very tasty). They have a thick red skin and the inside is a mushy orange/yellow paste. We would collect all of the fallen berries from the floor and empty out the orange paste into a separate bowl. We would then go around the yard collecting other things to "cook" with the berries. I have no idea how this occupied us for so long, but we would play this game for hours every fall.

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When I was a child, my family and I spent a large portion of our summers in Rocky Point, Long Island. The property there borders the woods and it is the perfect place to forage mushrooms. One of my grandmother's friends, Nello, taught us a lot about foraging mushrooms. When he was a teenager, he escaped Italy during World War II and was in hiding in the woods for weeks before he made it to safety. He and his brother knew all about different uses for plants, which were edible and what they looked like at different stages of growth. To this day, every time I find a mushroom in the yard or forage some other berry in the woods, I think of him.

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Plants are a huge part of my childhood. In our backyard, there was a long vine of Honeysuckle trailing along the homemade fence that encamped it. I remember interacting with the sweet lovely carefully searching out the most supple yellow ones. The darker the yellow, the sweeter and riper the nectar. Carefully pulling the base off the flower dragging the stamen downward extracting the nectar and popping it in my mouth then back for another. It is like a movie in my mind's eye.

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My mom took me and my brothers blackberry picking along the railroad tracks near our home in northwest Florida. I recall the experience vividly and happily. Getting ready for the trek in search of the sweet, soft, black goodness was part of the whole memory. We gathered our baskets and lined them with cloth. We talked about our favorite ways we would consume them...right off the prickly vine staining our fingers and lips and in a bowl with a heaping spoonful of sugar cast upon them. Sweet memories!

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As kids, my brothers and I brought our adventures to life using the trees in our backyard. One specific tree called the China Berry tree served us well. We used the fruit in our home made berry shooters to round out our Indiana Jones style adventures. Our dad hung an old tire on a strong hemp-type rope from a strong tree limb that served as a swing and catapult for our imaginative playtime. Wow, I dug up that old memory, lol! Thanks, Jami Staples (Husnain)

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As kids, my brothers and I brought our adventures to life using the trees in our backyard. One specific tree called the China Berry tree served us well. We used the fruit in our home made berry shooters to round out our Indiana Jones style adventures. Our dad hung an old tire on a strong hemp-type rope from a strong tree limb that served as a swing and catapult for our imaginative playtime. Wow, I dug up that old memory, lol! Thanks, Jami Staples (Husnain)

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A round, deciduous shade tree with fragrant lilac flowers, Chinaberry trees are common throughout Florida.

Native to India, China, and the Himalayas, Chinaberry was brought to the United States as an ornamental. This species can reach up to 40 feet in height, and grow rapidly when young. Its aggressive growth rate and lack of natural enemies has caused it to crowd out native plants. The UF/IFAS Assessment of Non-native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas has identified this plant as invasive in North and Central Florida and is not recommended. It has been identified as a "caution" species for South Florida, meaning that existing Chinaberry trees in the landscape should be managed in order to prevent escape.

In addition, the fruits and seeds are poisonous to humans (not to mention messy). If you're looking for an ornamental tree, consider a redbud or crapemyrtle in North Florida, or a trumpet tree in South Florida.

UF/IFAS Sites

UF/IFAS Publications

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A round, deciduous shade tree with fragrant lilac flowers, Chinaberry trees are common throughout Florida. Native to India, China, and the Himalayas, Chinaberry was brought to the United States as an ornamental. This species can reach up to 40 feet in height, and grow rapidly when young.

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Dandelions! I don't remember a particular book or movie, but I'm always mesmerized whenever the characters blow a dandelion and you see all the petals fly away.

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When I was a child I used to walk by a gingko tree near my parent's workplace. I always avoided the tree because the gingko nuts smelled really bad and there were always caterpillars flying down the tree and the caterpillars made my skin itched!

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My sister and I love succulent plants! We have many different types of them at home!