Did you know that plants can get the blues too?  Me neither! Ok, not really…but maybe they do? I don’t know if it’s been scientifically proven or not, but I noticed this “blues behavior” in a couple of my indoor plants.

7 years ago, I bought 2 Croton Petra plants (that’s what Google told me they were. So, I hope that’s correct).  Anywho, their leaves used to look similar these…

I put them both by our sliding deck door, one on each side.  They’ve been there since the day I brought them home.  Now, I’m no botanist nor do a I have a completely black thumb.  I’d say, I’m somewhere near black thumb, but not quite…..Let’s just say, I have a gray thumb. Anywho, I read somewhere that these plant do well in places with indirect sunlight.  So I figured near the deck door was good.  There’s sunlight there in the afternoon, but not directly hitting the plants…indirect sunlight, right?  

They did well there for a while. And then about a year or so ago, I noticed just watering them once or twice a week as I’d been doing (give or take) since I brought them home wasn’t making them as happy as they once were.  Their leaves were dying faster. The colorfulness was gone. The fullness was gone.  They just looked, sad. See…

Lots of missing and premature leaves.

Throwing them away wasn’t an option for me (can’t say the same for my husband 😒) So, I decided to move one when I shopped the house for my stair landing makeover. The stair landing gets about the same amount of sunlight as the deck door. 

I continued to water them both as usual generally at the same time.  But, I noticed the one I moved to the stair landing started to bloom more leaves and grow faster than the one I left by the deck sliding door.  Look at it…

2-3 weeks ago, it looked like the other one above, with just 4-5 leaves. Now look at it! Flourishing! This brought me to the conclusion that it was the change of scenery that caused the stair landing Petra plant to start to bloom more. It had the blues by the deck door since it had been their for 7 years! It’s sister plant, which I haven’t moved from the deck door position, still looks…blue.  

I get it Croton Petra plants…I get it. Now to find a new spot for the other one and plant replacements for the deck door. 

So if you have a plant that’s just not flourishing and it’s been the it’s spot for a while, try moving it. It probably just needs a change of scenery. 
Decor items pictured:

Stool: DecorSteals.com

Wooden tray: DecorSteals.com

Black and white striped vase: Target dollar spot

Faux billy button flowers: Hobby Lobby

White vase: Target dollar spot

Faux plant in white vase: Michaels

Black and tan diamond patterned plant pot: Hobby Lobby

Tan plant pot: IKEA 

Croton Plants: IKEA