To be a flower-keeper is profound responsibility

[jupiter2932]

Title: To be a flower-keeper is profound responsibility
Author: jupiter2932
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: G
Word Count: 200
Characters: Owen/Tosh
Notes: Written for torchwood100, challenge 801: Flowers
Summary: It starts with the orchid Owen gives her on their first date.


It starts with the orchid he gives her on their first date, really.

Tosh already keeps a couple of house plants; the green vibrance of living things in her home is something she finds necessary after her experience with UNIT. But her plants are hardy things, the sort you find when you google 'houseplants hard to kill.'

That's necessity, because anything delicate would struggle to survive her working hours and the exhaustion she brings home with her on her days off.

But she makes an effort for the orchid.

It's a little silly, maybe, to be fussy over something just because Owen gave it to her, but Tosh thinks they've earned some silliness in their lives after everything they've been through.

So she tends the orchid as best she can, downloads advice from old Reddit threads, and manages to keep it alive for a month.

Then one day she and Owen are out, running errands together—their first time meeting up outside of a date—and Tosh's eye catches on a begonia.

Owen's set it in his trolley before she can protest.

By the time they move in together, they have to find a place with room for her garden.

Comments

[badly_knitted]

Aw, so lovely!

Orchids aren't so difficult to care for, as long as they're not really rare hypersensitive ones. I'm not good with indoor plants, but my three orchids are doing fine. Admittedly, the last one was a Christmas present so I've only had it a couple of months, but the other two have been knocking around for years.

I wish Tosh all the luck with her plants. =D

[jupiter2932]

Oh, neat! I've only heard about the fussy orchids, I guess; I have a lot of plant allergies, so I haven't ever tried to keep house plants.

Tosh will absolutely love her garden :D

[badly_knitted]

It must suck to have so many plant allergies. =(

I have hayfever, from pretty much any kind of pollen, but my antihistamines take care of that so I can enjoy plants and gardening. I got one of my orchids from the coalman who had them from another customer who'd been given them after a family member passed away. She couldn't bear to look at them, they were a reminder of her loss. So I wound up with one, shoved it on my windowsill, and I just pour some water in the pot every so often. It produces pink flowers whenever conditions meet with its approval, lol!

[jupiter2932]

I've actually grown out of a lot of allergies I got in my 20s, fortunately, so for all I know I maybe could handle a few inside plants now; I have hayfever, but it's more skin allergies/sensitivities that tend to bother me. I have a couple of fake plants for my office because they're supposed to have the same morale-boosting effect, but it would be nice to have something live once I get my office cleaned back up again.

[badly_knitted]

Maybe you could manage a cactus or two. I mostly have succulents on my windowsill. As long as they're not overwatered they do okay. Aloes are nice as long as you're not allergic to anything with aloe vera in it. Green, growing things absorb CO2 and give out oxygen, that's the biggest benefit to indoor plants, but they are nice to look at too.

[jupiter2932]

Yeah, I know they're supposed to have a morale-boosting/anxiety-reducing effect as well, which is what the fake ones do, but it's not quite the same. I might just go out and see, one of these days, which ones I can touch/be around without a bother. Hilariously, the ones that are the *worst* for my skin sensitivity are a type of dwarf palms which are just *everywhere* down here; sometimes my arm will start itching and I'll realized I brushed up against one earlier.

[badly_knitted]

Ugh, that's a pain, especially if the weather's so hot your arms are bare.

I hope you can find some easy to care for plants that you're not allergic to.

[jupiter2932]

Thank you! Sorry, I didn't mean to go off. At this point it's a little more funny than anything.

[badly_knitted]

Don't worry about it. We all have the right to grumble about life's nuisances, lol! Even the ones that are amusing to some degree.