A September coffee plant update

When I was at Kew last week I took a photo of their coffee plant. I couldn't find out was how old it was, but I'm sure you'll admit it looks lovely and healthy. It does live in a wonderful hothouse and not in an old Church, so has a distinct advantage over the ones I'm growing.

Coffee plant at Kew

I don't know if this happens to you, but sometimes I find myself sitting in a singular place in my home and I manage to notice things I've never seen before.

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting on the stairs, looked over at the coffee plants and realised that the poorest of them all wasn't getting much light from the daylight bulb. I don't know how this had escaped my attention for the past 4 years, but it has. I decided to move it onto a skylight window ledge where it would get maximum sunshine. It will have to be moved back when we go away or else it will have no water (the daylight system also has a water system too - nothing's too much for my babies!).

Below you'll see a picture of the three that are left under the system. The difference between the biggest and healthiest is extraordinary compared to it's siblings and I wish I knew why, but they're all surviving and that's the main thing.

How healthy is this!

And here's a pic of the poorest of them, now all on it's own by the sunniest skylight in my house. It seems to be responding, albeit in it's own slow way, but any response is better than none.

Poor little thing!

It's almost begging me to buy another daylight lamp. I've resisted so far, but we'll see how persuasive it can be!