Care and Agency in Houseplants
There are different types of houseplant-owners. On on end of the spectrum we have people, who keep plants for purely decorative reasons. Then on the other end there are plants, with whom people talk, and where the plants are intimately tied to stories.
On of the two sides is more sustainable. The moment you start to care about a plant, you give more attention to its wellbeing and needs. A well cared for plant lives longer, and probably happier as well.
Many of my houseplants are embedded in a story; one I rescued from my office, one belonged to a friend’s aunt, who is in palliative care, others I bought together with friends on a market and the images of that day are still vivid, living within the plant. With some of my plants I’m really proud at how well they are doing and I’m telling them that as well.
Through this care, I develop an intimate and affective relationship with them. Through this affective relationship with these plants they are also imbued with agency over me. My caring for them makes them affecting me; relationships always go both ways.
This is animism through care.
The ontological status of the houseplant is hightened, from a mere passive object to something inbetween that and a person; a non-human person within a more-than-human entanglement.