Tucked away on 4 Gibson is another ICU but the patients in this location have more problems with root rot and real bugs rather than the viral kind. Welcome to BJ's ICU, where plants go to be healed.
Belinda Jones (aka BJ) of Physical Plant is HUP’s plant doctor.
Her 'saves' have included a sad-looking yucca plant that the original owner had left behind for dead. She dragged it back up to the hallway leading to her office and promptly went to work nursing it back to health. “I removed all the dead leaves, gave it food and water, and started talking to it,” she said. The therapy worked. The plant now thrives in its environment.
For another plant – this one with bugs -- “I mixed dishwashing liquid in water and applied it with paper towels. Then I cut up newspaper very finely and mixed it into the plant’s dirt,” she said. “It killed the bugs inside the soil and the owner was so happy!”
As word of BJ’s miracle cures spread throughout HUP, so did the number of ‘patients’ in her ICU. Today they line both sides of the hallway.
BJ credits her plant knowledge to both her mom and grandmother, who shared their love of plants with her and provided some old-fashioned remedies to keep plants healthy and thriving:
- Mix used coffee grounds in with the soil as a fertilizer. “It keeps them healthy.”
- Don’t throw out your egg shells. Put them in a gallon jar, fill with water, and use to water plants.
- Spray or mist plants once a week.
- Talk to your plants. “I greet mine every day with ‘Good morning and keep on growing!’
