Operation Spider Plant

My latest project has been a long time in the making. I have a slight obsession with spider plants, mainly because they are the only plant that I can successfully keep alive but I also love the way that they just keep on growing and producing babies without having to go through the whole flowering, pollination and seed planting process (saying this though I've had two spider plants that have produced flowers as well and it was quite exciting). I love how you can cut off their offspring and stick them in water until they develop roots and then plant them in a pot of their own until they grow up and have babies themselves thus keeping the whole circle of life going for generations and generations right in front of your very eyes. They are my substitute for dogs whilst I continue to rent flats from landlords that don't allow pets although in an ideal world I'd have loads of spider plants and dogs running around and maybe a tortoise as well. It is my life ambition to one day set up a shop that sells just spider plants and when you walk in the door they'll all be hanging down from the celling and there will be a thick jungle of spider plant babies cascading down to the floor. This is my vision...I do realise that I may have issues!

Currently I have two spider plants. I acquired Aragog, the Daddy of all spider plants, in a pub* when he was just a baby.  Just like his namesake he grew and grew and had millions of babies and now he's taking over my whole flat. I've had him for about three years and I love him dearly with all my heart.

The other spider plant I have is a special curly leaved spider plant. I heard about these years ago but they are really hard to come by. I found one in a pop up stall in the middle of Chester about 6 years ago and went back a few days later to purchase it but the stall had already vanished and I haven't seen another curly leaved spider plant since. And then in November last year I bought one off Ebay. I wasn't sure how well a plant would take to being battered around in the post but he was packaged very well and he's still alive today. I decided to call him Norman [Watts].

From left to right: Aragog and Norman. Aragog's babies have got so out of hand that they are now trying to take over Tracy Island!

I used to have two other spider plants prior to Aragog and Norman but sadly due to an unfortunate incident where my ex housemate cranked up the heating too high whilst I was away for Christmas, it resulted in them both being dead by the time I got back. It was very upsetting and I will never forget Obi Wan or Cassie, may they rest in peace.

Anyway, now that I've told you about my entire family tree of spider plants I can get onto the whole point of this blog post which is the fact that I decided to try my hand at making fake spider plants out of fabric and the whole operation turned out rather well I think. The leaves are stuffed with pipe cleaners so you can bend them and shape them anyway you want them (just like a Cheese String) and the pots are upcycled cream pots that are painted to look like they are actually made out of terracotta. I wanted to make this a novelty item and thought it would be pretty exciting to make a batch of "pot your own fake spider plant kits" to sell on Folksy so I started experimenting with materials to use as a substitute for soil. In the end I decided that felt was the best thing for it and I am so pleased with the way the first one turned out.

This is the fake one

At the moment I've only made one but I will be making more as soon as I have another free couple of days to spare. I'm also trying to formulate a cunning plan on how to go about making a gigantic spider plant with millions of babies dangling from it so watch this space.

I would  love to find out what you (ie people who are slightly more sane than me) think about about operation spider plant. I am very aware that not everybody is as enamoured by these truly beautiful plants as I am but it would be nice to know other people's thoughts on the subject. Or you can just send me photos of your own real spider plants or any other plants you may have in your house/garden.

You can leave me a message below, send me a tweet @McPoodleShop or head on over to The McPoodle Shop Facebook page. If you would like to purchase your very own fake bendable spider plant please click on this here link. http://folksy.com/items/4362767-Fake-Bendy-Spider-Plant


* the pub wasn't The Hog's Head unfortunately