Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Shortly after we got married and moved to Utah, we were given a very friendly plant by Rebecca's brother, Karl. He warned us that it did not yet have a name (yes, he names his plants), so we sought to get to know our new plant and choose wisely. Somehow the plant soon began to breed gnats in its soil, perhaps because we kept windows to our second floor, non-air-conditioned apartment open. We tried desperately to kill the gnats infesting our plant and by association our apartment -- we tried everything from tape and plastic wrap concoctions, to sticking the poor thing on the back porch in the cold weather hoping the gnats would all die. We eventually remedied this dire situation for our poor plant with some sort of pest/fly spray (he is still growing strong, now in our California apartment, elevated above pussy cat height), but the plant gained a name: Gnat, short for Gnat King Cole. He is a jolly ole soul.