Library’s 50-year-old Monstera plant finds new life through community clipping program

A 50-year-old Monstera plant that has called a local library home since the 1970s is getting a second chance at life through a community-driven clipping distribution program led by a dedicated librarian.

Madison Maler, a reference librarian who has worked at the library for almost three and a half years, has been working to save the plant after discovering it was severely infested with scale insects. The plant, which measures 15 feet in diameter with a root ball system spanning four and a half feet by seven feet, had been covered in what appeared to be sand for years.

About a year ago, she posted a picture of the plant to a Reddit forum dedicated to plant care, asking what was wrong with the plant. The post was seen thousands of times and hundreds of people responded, telling her that the plant was infested with scale, and it was actually covered in millions of tiny bugs.

“You won’t see them crawling around, but they stick themselves to the leaf and suck the moisture out of it, and go on to kill the plant,” Maler said.

Maler said the plant had likely been suffering from the infestation for years.

The plant sits at the center of a pond that has at least 10 koi fish living in it. The Monstera’s roots provide oxygen to the fish, while the fish and algae give fertilizer to the plant, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem that has lasted decades.

When the library first opened in 1975, there was an open fountain in place of the pond, but the library board soon had to install a wrought iron fence within two years of its opening after at least four people had fallen in. The fountain was replaced in 1986 because the shooting jets of water were affecting the books with mold and mildew. 

Maler took on the project of nursing the plant back to health because she always wanted to learn how to garden.

“Plus, I liked having this big plant in our workplace. It really brightens everything up and makes it happier here.”

Because of its location in the middle of a pond, she first needed some special equipment from a family member who was probably confused why a librarian needed to jump into a pond. 

“I borrowed some waders from my uncle, and I got in the pond and I cut a branch off,” she said. 

Over the next couple of weeks, before the library opened, Maler was in the pond cutting branches and cleaning off the leaves using isopropyl alcohol that dried out the bugs and killed them.

However, once most of the scale was gone Maler was faced with a new problem: Where is the Monstera going to go during the library’s upcoming renovation?

The library is about to undergo at least 18 months of construction at a cost of about $42.5 million to address interior and exterior repairs, a seismic retrofitting, and improvements and modernizations to nearly every part of the library.

The koi will be taken care of by a local fish company, but they weren’t able to take the plant.

Maler tried to rehome the massive plant, but at 15-feet in diameter and with a large root ball, the plant was too much for any one person to take on. 

Instead of re-homing the whole plant, Maler began offering cuttings to the community. The response was overwhelming, with more than 100 people messaging her after she posted about it on Reddit.

“(T)hank you to everybody who loved this plant and who is so invested in making sure that it lives on. The library is always going to have its koi, and it’s always going to have a lot of greenery.”

— Reference librarian Madison Maler

“When we had [the library’s] going away party three weeks ago, I gave away over 40,” Maler said. “And in the last two weeks, I’ve given away like, maybe 20 more.”

The interest extended far beyond the local community, with people from Florida and New York requesting cuttings be shipped to them. Maler has accommodated these requests, ensuring the plant’s legacy will spread across the country.

The library closes this Friday, but visitors will soon have access to its temporary location at Rimrock Plaza on the corner of East Palm Canyon Drive and Gene Autry Trail at 4721 East Palm Canyon Drive.

There will be a little piece of the Monstera plant there too, which Maler hopes to bring back to the library after its renovation. For her dedication to the plant, Maler’s coworkers christened her as “Our Lady of the Monstera.”

Maler is still looking for somewhere to take on the root ball. This week she plans to reach out to the College of the Desert’s Palm Desert campus, which has a koi pond managed by their landscaping program.

What started with a single question online a year ago soon bloomed into something greater, with thousands of plant lovers rooting for the plant and clamoring for a piece of it.

“Just thank you to everybody who loved this plant and who is so invested in making sure that it lives on,” Maler said. “The library is always going to have its koi, and it’s always going to have a lot of greenery.”

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