When one gets married (which we did some years ago), there are certain aspects of your new life that no one ever seems to mention. One of them is houseplants. We have a nice heavy, thick book that sits on our coffee table. It is entitled, The House Plant Encyclopedia. If you were to open it, you would find a very goodly number of plants that show their wares. A person might comment that it would be nice to have a couple or so of these around the house – at least the husband might say that – assuming that he opened the book. The book is illustrated with 900 superb color photographs.
I mention this due to the fact that The Blonde in the house has been on a crusade for many years to get at least one of each. She is even aided and abetted by one of the big stores on 441/27 which has a sick plant section. The Blonde has never seen a sick plant that she could not nurse back to health – and because they are sick, they are VERY inexpensive, don’t you know. Luckily, we did enclose the lanai where a lot of the plants exist – which means that it is now easier to see the TV. I will admit that it could be worse as she also likes clocks (another story) which takes away spots where plants could be located.
I recognize that this is all good for the economy. This applies not only to the seller of plants, but also includes the sellers of plant stands. Obviously, you can’t just place them on the floor of the lanai. They have to have a stand to sit on, and if the stand has several levels then so much the better. As you know there are lots of sand hill cranes around. You may have also noted that if they come up to your house they will eat plants – especially ones with flowers. However, they will not come on the lanai even if you leave the door open. Not that I would, but one of my friends who exists under the same conditions did.
Not only didn’t the above work, but he spent the next couple of days capturing anoles and geckoes and casting them carefully outside. Such creatures are kind of cute, but do not belong in any part of the house according to the Spousal Creed. When it comes to flowers, I know roses, violets, and then there are all the others. Speaking of violets, in one of our previous homes The Blonde had a slew of African violets growing like mad in the bathroom. It is not enough that there are a horrendous number of American plants, but she had to have some from Africa as well.
In addition to the above, the other day we received a large brochure on a new book with the title “50 Unknown Houseplants (and where you can find them).” Unfortunately, it just so happened that the brochure came the same day as recyclables are collected and somehow the brochure ended up in the collection bag. Not to worry though as she still is working on the original batch mentioned in the above encyclopedia. Matters will be OK as long as the store on 441/27 doesn’t have some of the “Unknown 50” in their sick bay.
Now that that is settled have I mentioned the encyclopedia of outdoor plants?
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com
