Ivy is the shape-shifter of plants. It acts like it’s your friend, all pretty and green. It sends out new leaves now and then. It lets you brag on it; it even poses for pictures. But when it’s good and ready, that sucker will turn on you. Those verdant vines begin to thin. More water? More light? Plant food? It will scorn your offerings and laugh at your heartbreak as, leaf by leaf, it turns brown and reduces itself to barren sticks in a pretty cachepot.
It was an ancient florist speaking of ivy who first wrote, “Fool me once, shame on thee. Fool me twice, shame on me.”