Plantcestors
Jennifer Ling Datchuk:
“I grew up surrounded by plants full of big cultural meanings and their everyday importance in our lives. I was very lucky to grow up in a multigenerational Chinese home where I got to watch and learn the daily preparations of my Paw Paw, my Chinese grandmother. She tended to two large Jade and Dracena Fragrans plants in her tiny apartment. The Jade, the largest I've ever seen, had a stalk the size of a baseball bat and branches as large and wide as an outdoor bush. The Dracena Fragrans, known to us as a money plant, was so tall it touched the ceiling and had a broom stick tied with red string to hold the stalk up. Both plants symbolize prosperity, wealth, and luck and it was very important to treat them with care for this very reason. Every Chinese home we visited had this luck garden and you could see the love and hope in their care. I was impressed very early on by my Paw Paw that it was a requirement to bring 8 oranges to every Chinese home I visited as a thank you gift - 8 the ultimate luck number and oranges for prosperity.”