now as it happens, the worst trouble i am having with house plants is that they grow too fast. our house is low-studded, and i have been anxiously eying an angel-wing coccinea begonia that i raised from a slip given me by a friend; at the moment it is reaching hard for the ceiling. a particularly handsome rubber plant that has been with us for two years has even fewer feet to go. naturally i can't help feeling that the sound waves in this house, which are considerable [...] are agitating my plants and turning them into giants. nobody in my house wants to give up music. one answer to the begonia, of course, would be to eat it. the citzens of paris ate their begonias as a substitute for spinach during the siege of 1871. but i doubt if i can face eating a rubber plant.

katharine white, "war in the borders, peace in the shrubbery."