A California stay-at-home mom recently got her five minutes of online fame after taking to Facebook to reveal that the potted plant she had been watering and looking after for the last two years was actually made of plastic.
On February 28, Caelie Wilkes shared a very funny revelation with her Facebook friends. While attempting to relocate the succulent she had been looking after for two years in a larger pot, she was shocked to learn that the plant was artificial. The old pot broke, revealing a very thin layer of sand at the top, and a big block of Styrofoam at the bottom, where the plant’s roots should have been. She had been watering it regularly and making sure that it had all the right condition, only to learn that all her efforts had been in vain. Needless to say Wilkes felt like the last two years of her life have been a lie.
Photo: Caelie Wilkes/Facebook
“I’ve had this beautiful succulent for about 2 years now. I was so proud of this plant. It was full, beautiful coloring, just an over all perfect plant,” Caelie wrote. “I had it up in my kitchen window. I had a watering plan for it, [and] if someone else tried to water my succulent I would get so defensive because I just wanted to keep good care of it. I absolutely loved my succulent. Today I decided it was time to transplant. I found the cutest vase that suited it perfectly. I go to pull it from the original plastic container it was purchased with to learn this plant was FAKE.”
“I put so much love into this plant! I washed it’s leaves. Tried my hardest to keep it looking it’s best, and it’s completely plastic! How did I not know this,” the young woman wrote. “I pull it from the container it’s sitting on Styrofoam with sand glued to the top! I feel like these last two years have been a lie.”
Callie’s post went viral this week, attracting hundreds of humorous comments, as well as coverage by dozens of major news outlets like the New York Post or Fox News. While most either laughed at the poster’s cluelessness, some shared similar stories.
“I’ve done this!!” someone commented. “My mom bought me a succulent right after I got my wisdom teeth out, so I was still super drugged up when she gave it to me, and that happened to be the only time I looked closely at it for about a year… I finally became concerned that it wasn’t growing and so I put my finger in the soil to see if it was too dry or too wet and…freaking cement.”
