But Wait, There's More!

More new plants, that is. Yesterday, I was out and about, running a few errands. I needed to drop my stepson off at a friend's house, go to the post office, and buy a case of dog food. Buying new houseplants? Nope, not on the list.

So first, I drop the kid off at his friends house, a couple of towns over. Next stop, the post office. But then I realize that there is a nursery on the way (if I tweak my route a little.) So I decide to stop by. Turns out, it is the last day of their 40% off houseplant sale. So I purchase this:

Aglaonema 'Golden Bay,' I believe. Love those white stems!

I then proceed to the post office, without further incident. This is followed by a quick trip home, to drop off the plant. Next planned stop: Costco, to purchase the dog food. But what is on the way to Costco? Lowe's. (This time it is truly on the way, being right next door.) My local Lowe's isn't much for houseplants, at least not in the winter--but I've gotten a few pleasant surprises from time to time. Yesterday was such a day. "Distressed" plants were from 50-75% off. I purchased the following:

Guzmania. No further ID. But I love that yellow.

This one was only slightly past its prime. (There were other Bromeliads that were really distressed and done--definitely not worth it even at a deep discount.) It also had a mysterious white substance on two of its leaves. At first I thought it was bird poop. (Sometimes, birds enter the store through the greenhouse section.) It turned out to be paint of some sort, and was removed easily enough with rubbing alcohol. But even though the plant was attractive and in decent shape, the real reason I bought it was this:

One of the three pups on the new Guzmania. So even when the main plant passes on, it'll leave me with three new ones. Let us hope I can raise them to blooming age.

Also on sale, and no more distressed than the three others in the store that weren't marked down, was this:

Nephrolepis cordifolia, aka Lemon Button Fern. Other than one dry frond at the base, there was nothing wrong with this. I don't generally have much success with ferns, but I'm willing to try.

So time to get the dog food. Since it will be a quick in-and-out trip, I leave the plants in my still-warm car. While I can't say that I've never been tempted by plants at Costco, it is relatively rare. (Well, there was that time that my husband and I managed to maneuver a six foot tall Strelitzia nicolai into our Prius, but that was special.) Yesterday, it became that much less rare, because along with the dog food, I purchased these:

Two Cymbidium orchids, bursting from their pots and as tall as my living room sofa, seen behind them. 19.99 apiece!

Close-ups of the flowers

Alas, with the purchase of the dog food, my errands came to a close, and there were no more places I could find an excuse to stop at on the way home.