New Plants

For my birthday my mom asked me what I wanted and I said houseplants. I'd been wanting houseplants since I heard a wonderful and astonishing presentation at the University of Houston by Interiorscapes of Houston. I found out that plants not only produce oxygen but that they also "scrub" the air clean. They actually reduce the amount of toxins in the air. You can read some of the information he gave us at this website.

For my birthday, my mom bought me four plants and four really nice pots and potting soil. I repotted them all and put one in each room. When Joy got home, she couldn't believe what a difference they made aesthetically. She was quite happy with them but said no more. A week later she dragged us out at midnight to buy more plants. She needed more plants. I was all for it but concerned about finding a place at midnight to get houseplants. She assured me she knew just the place.

Did you know there were 24-hour plant shops? In downtown? There are. Joy explained it's because of the hospitals. People apparently need to be able to buy plants at all hours. So there we were. At midnight. Buying more houseplants. There were two men working there. I'm guessing they were Greek or Turkish. They were very nice older gentlemen. One, the quieter of the two, was finishing up a sale with another customer, so the younger and more talkative one helped us telling us all about the plants and leading us around the shop. We picked out several and he gave us a good deal on the plants. Then, when we were paying, we started talking about the orchids there on the counter. The quieter one is listening and wrapping the pots of the plants and the talkative one is talking away about you can just leave them alone and they'll grow fine like that and Joy and I are avidly listening expressing amazement because we always thought orchids were so difficult to care for. I mention that while I was in Okinawa I saw orchids everywhere and full of flowers. The talkative guy says, "yes, that one used to be full of flowers." And the quiet guy says very quietly, of course, "I used to be full of flowers," and he continues wrapping up our plants. Joy and I look at each other and share a stifled laugh not sure if he's joking or not. They help us with our purchase and we return home to fill our house with more plants amused with the idea of the quiet man full of flowers.