Six years ago this word did not exist. There were no arguments about it being legal or not. Now it is, not in a dictionary. Yet. I am referring to “proplifting”. Proplifting is when you find a bit of a plant – like when a bit gets knocked off so there it is, a bit of a plant. A person sees the bit of a plant and they pick it up and propagate a new plant. This seems to work best with succulents.
Note that this is not taking a cutting from a plant. The part of a plant you or one picks up is already off of the plant.
Proplifting was coined by Sarina Daniels. She was in Reddit and participating in r/succulents. She created r/ proplifting as a joke. Instead people that do the act, picking up and nurturing plants, did not get the joke intentionally or not they participated in r/proplifting.
There were some people who call them common thieves.
If you are of a mind to grow things and you find a piece of a plant on the ground a bit of plant that could grow if potted and cared for well you just might do that. Other people would sweep up that bit of a plant and put it into the compost bin.
This concept was introduced to me by Austin Kleon where he quotes Mark Twain (I hope to type correctly here) where he said, “It is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around neglected.” To which Austin Kleon asks “What about proplifting?” You can find the article easily enough by just searching for
proplifting.
I should point out that this only applies to bits of plants that have already fallen off the plant. Cutting a bit of plant is not the same. Nowhere in here do I refer to cutting off a bit of plant. I am only referring to picking up that which has already been separated from the plant.
Proplifting is now being debated by people who do it and people who consider the fallen bits to be their property and to take it is a form of stealing, they want to put it into their compost bin.
It seems people will argue about ownership of anything.
— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm :: 2022-04-16