Experts say having an plant inside your home can go a long way toward brightening your space and lifting your mood, productivity and concentration. Of course, it's up to you to ensure the plant thrives by getting it enough sunlight and water. But for one California woman, she discovered that she may not have needed to spend all that energy on being the perfect plant parent.
In a Facebook post that's gone viral, Caelie Wilkes, 24, a stay-at-home mom, shared a photo of a succulent she'd kept in her home over the last two years, and how she was only now, realizing it was a fake.
"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,” Wilkes wrote, adding that she discovered the plant was an impostor after she decided to transplant it into a new container.
"I go to pull it from the original plastic container it was purchased with to learn this plant was FAKE," she added.
“I put so much love into this plant! I washed its leaves. Tried my hardest to keep it looking it’s best, and it’s completely plastic!" Wilkes wrote. "How did I not know this. 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."
Wilkes wrote that she had been dedicated to her fake plant's survival, writing that she even had a watering plan for it.
"I had it up in my kitchen window. I had a watering plan for it, if someone else tried to water my succulent I would get so defensive because I just wanted to keep good care of it.”
The post quickly went viral, with thousands of comments from people all over the world, many of whom sympathized with Wilkes and shared their stories of something similar happening to them.
Fortunately, Wilkes now has a supply of REAL succulent plants thanks to Home Depot, who offered to send her real plants to help replace the impostor who'd sat in her kitchen the last few years.