When Dave and I go out thifting, we usually hit up a few other stores (like Home Depot, Walmart, Giant Tiger, etc.) And I ALWAYS look to see what house plants they have. Happily, I have soooo many houseplants that it’s rare that they have one I don’t.. so I don’t end up buying anything. But recently there were THREE exceptions.

First…

I found this lovely little Juniper Bonsai. We have another Bonsai (a Ficus) and we adore it. The nice one is, this one can stay outside in the winter… so eventually it won’t be house plant at all.

The next was a plant I’ve seen on my British Gardening shows, but never in real life

It’s a Primula. And it’s a little more purple than this one appears in the picture. The jury is out on whether I will be able to keep it alive, as I struggle with most blooming house plants (Orchids and African Violets being the exception – though there have been plenty of failures in those arenas along the way).

The last is an orchid. And I wasn’t really planning on buying any more orchids. I already have 12… two of those are in bloom and two are about to bloom. But then I saw this one at Walmart.

Not only was it covered in flowers… but look at that colour…

It’s the prettiest dusty yellow with just a touch of maroon on each petal. I’ve never seen anything quite like it! It just HAD to have it! (It helped that it was only $15, which is super reasonable for a two-stem orchid)

So…I guess now I have 13 orchids. Lucky 13!