A Chinese man who spent seven months away from his apartment in Langfang, Hebei Province, recently returned to find his home had transformed into a small botanical garden.

The unnamed man took to social media to share videos and photos of what he found when he entered his home, after being away for almost seven months, since before the Covid-19 crisis. You can see vines lining the walls of the apartment, using hanging photos, the TV set and furniture as supports to advance further into the home, and even some stems hanging from the roof. The video of this small botanical garden quickly went viral, leaving many social media users wondering how the plants grew so much without him to look after them. It seems the man’s brother had a part to play as well.

The owner of the apartment told Chinese video platform Miaopai that he had been stuck in his home town since the Spring Festival, due to the Covid-19 lockdown. He was only able to return home to Langfang late last month, and was shocked to see the state of the place. Apparently, he had asked his brother, who lives in the same building and has a spare key, to water the plants from time to time, but he never imagined his brother would just let the vines take over the place.

It’s unclear whether the man’s brother simply didn’t think to trim the vines when he saw them expand their territory, or he simply wanted to play a prank on his sibling, but people really want to know his secret to getting house plants to grow so fast.

 

“I’ve had four plants die in the last seven months, what is your brother’s secret?” one person commented on the video.