Gary the Christmas Cactus Marks Four Decades at Mountlake Terrace Police Station

Visitors heading to the front desk at the Mountlake Terrace Police Department first pass a long-serving fixture: Gary, a Christmas cactus that has been in the lobby for roughly 40 years. He carries blooms instead of a badge.

Gary is about as wide as he is tall, with hundreds of long, scalloped leaves hung with bright fuchsia flowers. He weighs around 30 pounds. Tammy Custer, the department's evidence technician and animal control officer, says the plant has become unwieldy. "He needs a haircut," she said. "He's hanging pretty low and getting heavy."

Looking after Gary is not part of Custer's job description; she does it out of commitment and affection. She is searching for someone to prune him, though the position is unpaid and she wants applicants to prove they know what they are doing. "You have to show me some credentials," she said.

Gary's exact age and origins are unknown. Custer said the plant was given to the department in the early 1980s, and whoever was working the counter at the time began caring for it. Back then it was an ordinary houseplant with no name. That changed after Custer joined the department in 2008 and took over its care. The plant was much smaller then, and she named it Gary simply because she liked the name.

Under her watch the plant has kept growing. It blooms for about a month each year, brightening the gray lobby of the Mountlake Terrace Civic Campus and dropping pink petals on the carpet. Even so, many people regard it as just another plant, and most employees in the building do not know it has a name.

The police station occupies a corner of the modern civic complex serving the city of 21,428 residents, located between Lynnwood and Shoreline. Rikki Fruichantie, the city's community relations specialist, said Gary "offers a moment of respite where a lot of serious business occurs in the name of public safety."

His care routine is minimal. Gary sits in a pot on rollers, so Custer can slide him around, and he is usually parked near the entrance beside a box where residents can drop off unwanted medications. Custer waters him with two pitchers from the sink every other Friday, with no plant food. She does not talk to him, she said, because "he has a mind all of his own."

Christmas cacti are known for their longevity. They are succulents native to the rainforests of Brazil, and accounts elsewhere describe even older specimens, including a 145-year-old plant in a Montana family and a 100-year-old one in Lisle, Illinois.

Gary has already produced offspring. Rebecca Guillen, the city's public records officer, took home a small branch that had broken off several years ago and rooted it in water. It has since grown into a healthy plant, though she said she does not call it Gary Jr.

Custer, for her part, keeps expectations modest. "Don't make him more than he is," she said.