Things that are both sad and wonderful about being in love with plants:

• One cannot really have any assurance that they will still be there later on unless you own or have some sort of long term claim to, the soil in which they are planted.
• On the other hand, one is not limited to plants which one can own since they are all over the place and can be appreciated without actually claiming them.
• They change all the time. I was drawing the blooms of my cyclamens once and by the end of the drawing, the petals had twisted and changed very noticeably from their position when I first started drawing them. This seemed to be in response to the change in the position of the sun. I then drew them at night with a lamp as a constant light source... People think that plants are static, unmoving things, but this really is not the case at all. They are very dynamic. Very often, the plant that you see today is not the same plant you will see tomorrow.
• They're so vulnerable but in many cases, so resilient. People think of orchids as frail...but orchids frequently live on tree branches without soil. I have seen very badly neglected orchids that looked mostly dead, revive. If you forget to water a cyclamen and come by and see its blossoms drooping onto the table or countertop, and then water it (from the bottom, always, so as not to rot the corm), you can sit and watch its flowers slowly rise back to their usual position as the plant takes the water in.
• They don't complain, ever. Goats and children will holler and remind you if you forget to do something for them. Plants don't. They just suffer. There is something heartbreaking and reproachful about finding a plant of the verge of death (or past it) simply because I didn't take the time to check on it.