Tall Tale: A Plant Story 40 Flights Up - Part 2

To recap, I am a fan of plants and a fan of office-decorating and now a firm believer that plants are mood enhancers, which I definitely need at work.  This means that, of course, I absolutely must have plants in my office.  So when we moved back to New York City from Mexico and I went back to my desk, the first thing I did was call Flowers by Richard, because I know they deliver plants to offices.  Not only that, but the last time I had a plant in my office, I damn near killed it.  Luckily, Flowers by Richard came to my office with a watering can, scolded me for overwatering my plant and gave it a new plant basket.  Point is, I am pretty sure I'm going to need Flowers by Richard to come and check on my plants when I almost kill them again.

I explained my plant incompetency issues to Richard, and asked him what plants I should get.  His answer was some version of "it sounds like you're pretty much going to kill any plant we give you, so just choose ones you like." So I chose the "Benjamin Fig Tree" and the "Chinese Evergreen Plant."  And here they sit in my office:  

Benjamin Fig Tree

Chinese Evergreen

But the day after I happily received my plant delivery, I noticed these little black bugs that would appear out of nowhere - on my computer, on my desk, on the carpet.  So I called Richard, expecting him to offer to perform plant-surgery immediately or replace my plants or something.  I even worried that the bugs were bedbugs, because, hey, this is New York City, but Zack assured me they probably weren't.  Anyway, Richard told me not to worry, that I should just go Duane Reade and purchase dish soap and a spray bottle.  I was to fill the spray bottle half with warm water, half with dish soap, and then spray the plants.  So, always eager to take a break from work, ride the elevator 41 floors down to Times Square and spend time examining the relative merits of different face creams, shampoos, and -- this time, dish soaps -- I dutifully followed Richard's instructions: 

I sprayed the plants' soil morning and night until the bugs disappeared.  And now they're gone!  I actually had a little bit of a bug resurgence with a different kind of flying bugs emerging from the Evergreen, but I sprayed it down with more of the magic dish soap spray bottle and now the new bugs seem to be gone too!  Hopefully they're gone for good. 

I'll be back with "learning how much water is not enough and how much water is too much when watering your plants" because I'm having problems figuring that out right now.  Wish me luck as I try not to kill my plants and wish my plants luck in staying alive!