Some time ago a plant was destined to be thrown out because it had finished flowering, so me being me I took it home to see if I could rescue it. I trimmed away dead foliage and repotted it and gave it a light place in the home, where it just sat, and looked sad. I googled the plant (primula obconica) to find that it's a picky plant that tends to be discarded after flowering as it tends not to reflow. We'll after months of it looking miserable I put it outside for the summer (it is technically a tender outdoor perennial apparently), and forgot about it. Then the other day I noticed flower buds had appeared and the whole plant looked greener. So I brought it back indoors (it's getting cold out now anyway) Here it is now
This defines the difference between botany and horticulture very well. With botany, you do not discard the plant but with horticulture after you've gotten your use out of it, you do. This is why I like botany more! It lets the plant be ...a plant and grow as it normally would. I have Basil Bushes that continually produce leaves, not plants that I pick once they've grown one set of leaves. :) Awesome job, keep caring for it and it will care back.
Well I'm both, and have a qualification in horticulture, but I would never just throw a plant out just because it's stopped flowering. I would consider it a challenge to get it to flower again (never tried a Poinsettia tho-that might be too much!) After all I have a peace lily that refuses to flower again, it's just leaves but I still keep it.
