Mostly Dead Plant

I do not have a green thumb my any means. I'm not a death threat to plants either, but I can get, shall we say, forgetful when it comes to watering on a regular basis. I am even worse about reminding my husband to water while I am away. Hence the picture above. This used to be a beautiful hydrangea Matt bought for me years ago. It had beautiful white blooms. But after one such vacation away, it almost died. It withered to practically nothing, but my mother told me to just cut it way down and it would miraculously come back. So I did, and it came back, but never to its original glory. Even still, I nursed it to a new kind of health and fawned over it when it did anything remotely amazing.

But then I left for CA and Matt didn't water it at all while I was away. It was probably fairly dry from my own neglect, so I don't fault Matt at all, but even still it was pretty dead when I came back. But as you can see, not completely. Do you see those little budding leaves? I wanted to just toss it, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It has the willpower to live, can I really just throw it in the trash? I thought about planting it outside, where I wouldn't feel so responsible about it's livelihood, but the ground is still in permafrost mode and wouldn't be dug, at least not with my kitchen serving fork.

Oh, what to do.

I eventually ended in compromise. I needed the pot to give some other plants the much needed space. So I scaled some up and scaled this little struggling plant way down. I think I actually like it in the tiny pot. It doesn't look nearly as pathetic down there.

But I couldn't help but think that this whole scenario says something about me. Or is it human nature? Would you have been able to toss the struggling but mostly dead plant? I NEED to know.