Timing IS Everything

We went out today for our last cat’s appointment for flea and worm treatment. She was an angel. Too bad she isn’t that docile at home.

But after that we had to get some hardware items for some special secret projects John’s working on lately. Must be Christmas surprises I think for a few relatives. But anyway, getting back to the main point of this blog, I didn’t want to go to the closer big box store that has hardware stuff and paint, also needed, so I pushed him to drive a little further for an extra 15 minutes on the bypass that gets us to the Aussie owned big box franchise that has plants that are half the price of the closer store and a much better selection. 

I found myself pushing a huge trolley around, a wheeled wonder that seemed to be the size of our car’s interior, and just as I laid my eyes on some really cheap bargain plants and put a few in the cart, I happened to notice a young woman standing next to another king sized cart. On that were at least 20 slightly raggedy petunia plants, just like the few I’d bought a couple of weeks earlier at full price. But when I asked how much they were and then saw that she was holding a big roll of stickers and a felt pen, I already knew that they were going to be marked down. What synchronicity....they were exactly what I'd come in for.  So I got to hunt and pick out the best of the worst that she’d probably just culled from the large display at full price with newer arrivals showcased instead of these slightly tired beauties. In the end I ended up with 11 of them to go with the bargain sunflowers that I myself didn’t plant this year or grow from seed in this very cold weather and some nameless yellow flowered, long stemmed, sort of gangly, dangling plants that look good en masse. 

Although I have no particular idea of where these are going to land once I get home, eventually I know I'll find just the perfect spots. I’ve stuffed the enclosure of chicken wire pretty full and now things are taking off inside there. So that’s out. There’s another patio that needs plants but only gets partial sun late in the day and has chicken visitation regularly. In fact the last petunia I paid full price for must have been quite delicious since it now only has one bloom, rather than the 5 that I saw yesterday. 

I have plenty of containers to put these in and space in the soil too with just the right conditions. But my chooks eat everything that I plant so I must put things high up out of their sight or behind some sort of enclosure. So I will have to really figure out where I can put these without the invasive flower vultures catching on to my hiding places. In the meantime I’ve included a quick shot of the flowers I’m describing and the lovely and very helpful sales girl who was a kindred spirit and really made my whole day. She even showed me photos of her sweet 100 cherry tomatoes that grew up to 10 feet tall. I bought a couple of those for some large concrete pots we unearthed from a fence line, even though I already have some of those planted already. Those two small plants will soon tower over those containers and fill out abundantly. It’s always nice to shop at this particular outlet but this time it was better than usual because of her easy going personality and helpfulness. I told her I was going to write about her. She laughed, but I was serious. I was very moved by her kindness. Sales people can be so disinterested. Finding her right there where I was looking made all the difference to me, even though I still would have bought the plants, although not so many. 

So I felt quite vindicated for urging John to drive further to get much better plants and more of them for less. Well done, me.