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Family Stories

Personal essays about plants, parenting, and family life

32 posts

• The Azalea on Every Chinese Balcony - Du Juan Hua and Missing Home

  Azaleas carry centuries of Chinese poetry about longing and homecoming. Here is how to grow one indoors and why this plant means more than its flowers.

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• Chrysanthemum Tea and My Grandma's Cure for Everything

  How ju hua cha went from my grandmother's kitchen remedy to something I grow and brew for my own kids - plus how to grow chrysanthemums at home.

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• The Gardenia That Smells Like Every Summer in China

  How the scent of zhi zi hua connects me to childhood summers, my grandmother's courtyard, and why I keep trying to grow this famously fussy plant indoors in New York.

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• Garlic Chives: The One Herb My Dad Never Let Run Out

  Garlic chives (jiu cai) grew in every Chinese household I knew as a kid. Now they grow in mine. Here is how to grow your own - and why they matter more than you think.

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• Bitter Melon: The Vegetable That Divided My Family (And Why I Grow It Anyway)

  A love letter to the most polarizing vegetable in Chinese cuisine - and a practical guide to growing it in containers on a New York balcony.

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• Growing Goji Berries at Home - My Mom Always Had a Bag of Gou Qi Zi

  Those little red berries showed up in every soup my mom made. Now I grow my own goji berry plant, and it turns out they are surprisingly easy - if you give them enough sun and stay out of their way.

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• Growing Your Own Tea Plant: The Most Chinese Thing I Have Done as a Dad

  Camellia sinensis grows surprisingly well indoors and on patios. Here is how to raise a tea plant at home and maybe brew a cup from your own leaves.

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• How I Became a Plant Dad: From Killing Succulents to a 50-Plant Apartment

  I used to kill every plant I touched. Then I became a father, moved to a tiny NYC apartment, and somehow ended up with more plants than counter space. Here is that story.

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• The Jasmine Plant My Mom Always Had on the Windowsill

  How a small jasmine plant connects me to my mom, Chinese tea traditions, and the surprising comfort of a familiar scent in a new country.

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• The Kumquat Tree That Brings Gold to Our Living Room Every New Year

  How a little potted citrus tree became the centerpiece of our Lunar New Year traditions - plus everything I have learned about keeping kumquats alive indoors in a New York apartment.

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• How a Bundle of Grocery Store Lemongrass Became My Backyard Colony

  What started as a $2 impulse buy at the Asian grocery store turned into a thriving lemongrass patch - and a connection to the flavors my family has cooked with for generations.

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• The Loquat Tree That Connected Three Generations of My Family

  Loquat trees have been a staple in Chinese households for centuries - as fruit trees, as medicine, and as memory. Here is how to grow one and why it might mean more than you expect.

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• Growing Lotus in a Bowl - The Flower That Taught Me About Patience

  How a sacred Chinese flower ended up on my Brooklyn fire escape - and how you can grow lotus (lian hua) in containers at home with surprisingly little fuss.

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• Longan Trees and Long Yan Rou: The Dragon Eye Fruit That Tastes Like Childhood

  How dried longan in my nai nai's sweet soups became a quest to grow my own dragon eye tree - and what I learned about patience, climate zones, and letting go of perfect fruit.

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• The Lucky Bamboo That Lived in Every Chinese Household I Knew

  How a small arrangement of Dracaena sanderiana connected me to my family, feng shui traditions, and the quiet rituals that make a house feel like home.

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• The Lychee Tree That Started with a Grocery Store Fruit

  How a bag of lychees from Chinatown turned into a growing experiment, a connection to childhood summers, and a lesson in patience every plant dad needs.

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• The Money Tree That Watched Over Every Chinese Business I Grew Up In

  Pachira aquatica has been standing guard in Chinese restaurants, bakeries, and living rooms for decades. Here is why, how to keep yours thriving, and what those braided trunks actually mean.

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• Growing Mugwort at Home - The Herb My Mom Swore Could Cure Anything

  Mugwort (ai cao) has been a staple in Chinese households for generations. Here is how to grow this resilient herb at home and why it means so much more than just a plant to our family.

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• The Water Fairy Flower: Growing Narcissus for Chinese New Year

  How to force Chinese narcissus bulbs in water and pebbles - the simplest, most meaningful plant tradition for Lunar New Year.

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• The Night-Blooming Cereus (Tan Hua) - The Flower That Taught Me About Impermanence

  In Chinese culture, the night-blooming cereus blooms once and vanishes by morning. Here is how to grow one at home - and why the waiting is the whole point.

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• The Orchid on My Grandma's Windowsill (And Why I Keep One Too)

  How a moth orchid on a windowsill in Queens connects me to my grandmother, Chinese cultural traditions, and the quiet patience of caring for something beautiful.

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• Growing Osmanthus Indoors - The Scent That Takes Me Back to Every Mid-Autumn Festival

  Osmanthus (gui hua) is one of the most culturally important plants in Chinese households. Here is how to grow sweet olive indoors and why this fragrant plant means so much to our family.

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• The Peony Is the King of Flowers - And My Mom Had Strong Opinions About That

  Peonies carry centuries of meaning in Chinese culture. Here is how to grow mu dan at home and why every Chinese family seems to have an opinion about them.

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• The Persimmon Tree in Every Asian Garden - And Why You Need One Too

  Persimmon trees carry centuries of meaning in Chinese culture. Here is how to grow one at home and maybe pass down a tradition of your own.

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• Plants and Parenting: Why I Keep Chasing Small Wins

  Some weeks, keeping a plant alive feels like the only thing I did right. A short story about messy routines, hand-me-down cuttings, and learning patience.

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• Plum Blossoms in February - What Mei Hua Taught Me About Patience

  The Chinese plum blossom (mei hua) blooms when nothing else will. Here is why this tree means so much in Chinese culture, how to grow Prunus mume at home, and what my dad's stubborn little tree taught me about waiting for good things.

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• The Pomegranate Tree (Shi Liu): Why Every Chinese Family Wants One

  Part fruit tree, part family heirloom, part cultural symbol - the pomegranate holds centuries of meaning in Chinese homes and a surprisingly easy spot in your garden.

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• The Sunday Morning Watering Ritual: How Plants Taught Me to Slow Down

  Between diaper changes and deadlines, my weekly plant care routine became the quiet anchor I never knew I needed. Here is how watering day turned into the best part of my week.

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• 3 Plants That Survive Actual Toddlers

  Kid-proof greenery that handles grabby hands, spills, and the occasional dirt-eating incident.

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• Why My Dad Grew Too Many Tomatoes (And Why I Do the Same)

  A meditation on suburban dads, tomato obsession, and the quiet satisfaction of homegrown food.

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• Wisteria (Zi Teng) - The Falling Purple Rain of My Childhood

  Chinese wisteria carries centuries of meaning about love, immortality, and the balance of all things. Here is how to grow one - even in a container - and why every spring it makes me miss my grandfather.

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• My Kids Begged for a Venus Flytrap: What I Learned the Hard Way

  A dad's honest guide to keeping carnivorous plants alive when you have curious kids, tap water, and zero tolerance for complicated care routines.

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