Today I treated myself to a shopping excursion to my very favorite garden center, Behnke's in Beltsville, MD - it's about 60 miles from home so I don't go too often! They were having a houseplant sale, and I've also been looking for assorted planters, plant stands, and a large round preform pond.
There, among the artfully arranged tropical plants, was the perfect pond - 6 feet across, 16" deep, sturdy enough to use above ground - exactly what I want for my growing collection of tropical lilies (well, I really wanted 8 feet across, but this will do). None of them on the sales floor, but they were nice enough to page the aquatics manager. He said they had just gotten 4 of them in yesterday, they weren't out yet. The price was around $220, which is LESS THAN HALF of any of the fiberglass ponds I've been looking at. He assured me it's the sturdiest in the industry and he has some at home that are 18 years old! I'll have to rent a truck to bring it home, but it will be worth it!
I scored a new terrestrial orchid (my latest passion) - phaiocalanthe 'Kryptonite'!!! Glowing red flowers, sort of like a cattelaya but with cool leaves like a coconut palm. Bought yet another tropical hibiscus - a single red from the Trade Wind Breeze series that stays relatively small, thus making them easy to bring indoors over the winter. Got a small ponytail palm with really cool red tinting at the base of the foliage instead of the normal green. And a bird of paradise at 50% off, which I really have no room for but I had to get because it was such a bargain. And a Stuttgart canna tuber, something else I've been lusting after and was going to mail order at outrageous cost.
THEN I found the perfect plant stand, so I can double-decker the plants inside the house!
I believe I have actually satiated my plant lust for at least a while!
