New Members of the Planted Earth Family

So what happens when you go out grocery shopping but make a quick stop somewhere and... see this:

It was MUCH bigger than this little spot

My sister-in-law and I could not help ourselves. We spent over an hour at Menards ooh-ing and ah-ing over the plants. And I mean there were SO many plants - about the size of half a football field. I got this:

It's a Gardenia Jasminoides
(yeah, I had to look that up!)

It's a Gardenia Jasminoides (you shoulda seen me trying to copy/paste that!) and I smelled it before I saw it. I literally pared down my grocery list to get this plant. It's so gorgeous that I can't stand it. Too bad that it wasn't until I got home and looked it up in the plant books that I realized they can be finicky little boogers... (This is why I have a Houseplants for Dummies book coming!)

By the way, I will not be getting any more of those cheap "grow" kits. My poor sunflower is dead and done.

Doing great on April 24th but...

...dead on May 6th

Anyway...


My sister-in-law, Bonnie, was super smart and combined a plant with groceries. She got a cool and beautiful thing called a "Living Salad".

Like a never-ending food bowl!

Talk about "garden to table" eating! I had spent my limit but what a great idea, right  Bonnie was nibbling on that thing all the way up to the cashout stand. There were so many beautiful plants that I had to walk away as fast as I could to keep from getting another one. I already got what I hadn't come for!

But... I wasn't quite as well-behaved as I wanted to be because I also got this when I went to Walmart:

Tulips but this time in water!

My last tulip plant lasted forever but I didn't have the patience for learning how to store the bulbs once the blooms died. These are in water and now that it's summer (or trying to be, anyway), I can get friends to help when I need to deal with saving this one. At least I remembered to spend the rest of my budgeted money on food while I was in the store. And I stayed on budget!


Not only did I stay on target with my budget, I actually stayed under it this time. The Dollar Tree store was a large reason for that. One of the things I wanted to do with the plants this Spring (or whatever this is happening at the moment) was to set my clippings up to grow in water. I have that silly Peace Lily that's giving me fits and some Pothos and my niece is going to be sending me some other types via the mail. I wanted to doll up some glass bowls for them. This turned out nice, I think:

bowls, 2 kinds of rocks, seashells  = $7

And I almost forgot this: I picked up a Monstera from the corner grocery the other day. So beautiful!

That's it for now except I started this pineapple crown in some water today:

I can't wait to get the cuttings all set up in their new water gardens. I'm already looking for some herbs to out into water containers. Of course, I'll be back to post the photos.

Peace
--Free