Start or end your story with a person buying a house plant.

Posted in Fluff on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 63 stories

“Hibiscus” by Delilah Markovic

Submitted to Contest #143

Botany was a hobby that my mother had always pursued. In the spring, she’d spend her weekends tending to her vegetable garden for hours on end. My father would have to pry her from the soil just so that she would come and have dinner with us. In the winter, she would bring home armfuls of books from the local library devoted to flowers and trees. She’d read every last word before returning them the next week and checking out another stack. I guess she’s the reason I bought a hibiscus plant last year. I saw it on the windowsill of an almost...

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“Repotting” by Sophia Bella

Submitted to Contest #143

I am anxious. I walk around the supermarket, trying to think of what food I might need to exist another week. I hate it when it is this busy. It feels claustrophobic and unsafe. How sad that the only sense of security I feel these days is being away from people. I hurry over to deli section to find hummus, and glance at the plants. Normally I walk by them without a second thought, but for some reason today is different. I notice a plant in a simple white pot. It has tall sword-shaped green leaves with white stripes. It's simplicity and elega...

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“The Wizard at Crossroads” by Ali Hamzah

Submitted to Contest #143

So, I went ahead and bought a house plant. A cactus. Something that was easy to take care of. I just had to water it once every week. This was the easiest thing ever. If I could take care of this house plant, I could become the assistant to my father, the brilliant wizard of the forest. We lived in the populated part of the forest of Thistle and my father was the man that often went out and protected the village from any monsters. Since I was young, I always wanted to be a wizard like my father but whenever I touched my plants, they would ju...

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“A Chat With Steven” by Zachary Cleveland-Blunt

Submitted to Contest #143

When you looked at Steven, the very first thing you noticed were his leaves. A dark, waxy green with a lighter underside and faint lines, or is it veins? Whatever it is that plants have, running along from the supple and slightly floppy edges down the branching stem. They weren’t large, but not exactly small either. You would get the urge to say they’re dinner plate sized simply because that feels like a comfortable metaphor to use, but in reality they fell in that undefined area between dinner plates and large teacup saucers. Once your mind...

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“The Magnolia Tree” by Kourtney Aikens

Submitted to Contest #143

She walked aimlessly down the row of tiny trees tucked snugly in their pots and placed a hand on her stomach feeling a bit sick and uneasy. She had filled her cart with a random selection of indoor and outdoor plants but nothing was clicking. She wasn’t sure what to pick. She wasn’t even sure what she was doing here. It had seemed like a good idea, but then again, the second piece of chocolate cake had seemed like a good idea too. Now here she was nauseous, overwhelmed, and tired. Oh so very tired. The kind of tired that she would henceforth...

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“Flower Boy” by Lauren Skemp

Submitted to Contest #143

The antiquated townhouses flew past me. My rhythmic steps increased in speed until I could go no further. Fire edged into my thighs, burning my tensing muscles. What had it been? 10 minutes? 12? I had lost count after the first five blocks of running on the neverending pavement. I prayed to whatever god would listen, silently begging that I didn’t blow my chances. I was never this late. Never. They can’t blame me that my clock didn’t adjust to the time change last night, can they? I was so wrapped up in my concern and anxiety t...

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“Olivia” by David Silbert

Submitted to Contest #143

Day 1 It came the day after she passed. A white parcel with no label. As I gazed at the package sitting on our living room table, I struggled to see why something—anything—had showed up for me at all. “It’s been here a few days,” my roommate called from the kitchen. “It looked a little suspicious, but we didn’t open it.” I touched it gingerly. Someone at UPS must have goofed. There was no return address, let alone anything to identify the sender. And though there was no text indicating “Fragile Contents,” I had to imagine, once I p...

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“Figs, and More Figs, and Golden Pothos” by Kay Martin

Submitted to Contest #143

Yes, I bought the weakest-looking plant I’ve ever seen, wilting with only a few leaves left intact. I’ll try not to bore you with every detail that led to my choice, like the flourishing lily pads surrounded by an algae bloom in a murky pond. Most people wouldn’t care about the way a fly slipped into the pitcher plant or reached out desperate arms through a fly-traps trigger. I wouldn’t normally care. I’m out of it today, I think. Sorry. But the trip went like this: it was two in the afternoon and my sandal caught on the last step of t...

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“Inconsequential ” by Sara Larca

Submitted to Contest #143

My wife loved plants. Love, even such a powerful word, cannot accurately describe how intensely she felt about them. The leaves, the petals, the roots … were all intertwined within her. She could never walk past without running her fingers across them, without whispering a word of affection. Sometimes I felt as if she loved them more than me, more than herself. Our tiny house was full of them, hanging from the ceilings, lining the hallways, crammed together on dusty windowsills. I used to tell her that she should register with the to...

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“Listen to the wisdom of plants” by Marta Ventosa

Submitted to Contest #143

It was time to do it. To move on. A punch on my stomach, a metallic taste in my mouth, the smell of something disgusting. As repulsive as the inside call. What was it? Just blurry feelings that make one enter an anxious spiral. “Go away, gooooo awaaaay!” I thought. But the feeling started pushing even more. “OK, done, you win. I will have to live with myself for at least 40 more years, then give me a break.” “Jane, did you go and see your grandma?” Oh, not again please, I have enough with myself to go and stand that old cat. However, n...

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“For Sam” by Ashlyn Cave

Submitted to Contest #143

Sam worked at a small coffee shop, called Creek-land Brews. She loved getting to talk to people everyday and trying her best to put a smile on each person's face. Her favorite beverage they served was a red velvet iced coffee, with almond milk and whipped cream on top. Sam was your average twenty year old girl, appearing to everyone as the nice brunette girl with blue eyes and a soft voice. On the inside, Sam was dealing with anxiety, for a long time; she didn't realize what it was. Until one day when a girl, close to Sam's age, walked in. A...

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“What Grows at Home” by Fred Aiken

Submitted to Contest #143

We had always wanted something to take care of and nurture. If there’s one thing I hope to convey beyond a reasonable doubt, it's that. When Morgan and I got back from our honeymoon to our condo that we had yet to furnish, yet to unpack, yet to start our new life, we felt a bit empty, like something was missing in our lives. It was a bit disappointing. We spent all that time dating, building up to get engaged, planning the details of the wedding, picking out the perfect horderves so that all our friends and family would be satisfied with ou...

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“Needed” by Victoria Haneveer

Submitted to Contest #143

I was never green-fingered, I mean not especially. I was just as capable as anyone else of buying some houseplant and placing it on some table or other and then watering it whenever I remembered or whenever it started to look dubiously brown.I mean, how hard could it be? How hard could it be to raise and grow a plant compared to raising a child or maintaining a relationship?It was for this reason I half-heartedly challenged myself in the first place. I'd lost both my husband and my only child in the past 18 months. My heart was sealed shut t...

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“Planting a Friendship” by Laura Huffman

Submitted to Contest #143

After working all night in the mansion’s nursing home Kitty was too tired to take a bath and too wound up to sleep. From the kitchen she grabbed a cup of coffee and went to the back porch that overlooked downtown Des Moines. She kicked off her nursing shoes and plopped on a wicker chair. Her soiled nursing uniform, once starched and ironed to perfection was now wrinkled and damp from perspiration. As she unhooked her nylons from her garter belt she wondered how much longer she could work without hiring a full...

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“Taking Flight” by Aleta Davis

Submitted to Contest #143

Spring felt slow to arrive the year after Marcus left. By early April, the daffodils’ dark green leaves had only barely begun to emerge from the soil. The heavy rain was expected, but moody clouds hovered even in its absence. Impatient, Miranda rose early one Saturday morning and set out for the hardware store on Beacon Street, hoping their usual selection of house plants wasn’t fully picked over. The short drive over exposed the wreckage of the previous night’s thunderstorm. Tree branches and debris littered the sidewalks, and a downed po...

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Start or end your story with a person buying a house plant.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 63 stories

“Hibiscus” by Delilah Markovic

“Repotting” by Sophia Bella

“The Wizard at Crossroads” by Ali Hamzah

“A Chat With Steven” by Zachary Cleveland-Blunt

“The Magnolia Tree” by Kourtney Aikens

“Flower Boy” by Lauren Skemp

“Olivia” by David Silbert

“Figs, and More Figs, and Golden Pothos” by Kay Martin

“Inconsequential ” by Sara Larca

“Listen to the wisdom of plants” by Marta Ventosa

“For Sam” by Ashlyn Cave

“What Grows at Home” by Fred Aiken

“Needed” by Victoria Haneveer

“Planting a Friendship” by Laura Huffman

“Taking Flight” by Aleta Davis

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story in the woods or on a campground.

Write about a character who loves cloud gazing.

Write about a trip to see a natural sight that’s usually only ever seen in photos.

Write a story involving a friendship between two different species.

Contest #143

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

253

Contest entries

139

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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