Money Tree #Fail

So... After the two posts where we showed how we carefully transplanted the 12 year old money tree from my old office into a new planter here at home and were elated when we began to see new growth — the inevitable happened...

The worst part is, it wasn't a fluke. I actually broke off this branch by accident with my own two hands.

Here's the backstory on my gardening faux-pas and naivety when it came to this plant. Mary was previously unfamiliar with money plants before I brought this one home, so she began researching them for best placement around the house and care moving forward. She kept coming across images of the plants that had braided bases and pointing out how cool they were, like these:

Braided money tree image source

Every time we'd see one of the plants, she'd point them out (kind of like when you get a new-to-you car and then everywhere you go you start seeing and recognizing the same kind of car), and we'd look at those braided/twisted trunks.

Maybe you can see where this is going. In my mind I kept thinking I could just twist the branches to braid them on our own plant, so over the weekend as I gently tried to pull one of them towards the other, that fateful snap happened:

I can still hear the loud snap of the twig resonating in my ears. OK, maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but you feel me, right?

That's when Mary looked over and said WHAT happened? When I told her I was simply trying to twist the branches like we'd seen, I realized before she even had to open her mouth that these plants are trained to twist like this while they're in the beginning stages of growth and have green, flexible trunks. #Fail

So now we have a single branch on the the original money plant and the broken one resting next to it in a mason jar filled with water:

We're not expecting much, but are hoping the main plant will at least stay alive. I have decided to stick with cooking and leave the houseplants to Mary.

As always, we'll keep you posted.