Flower Power

Sunday was such a nice day that we couldn't resist going for a drive.  I didn't intend to actually purchase any flowers - it's too early for me.  The nights are still cold enough that I have to bring the flowers in over night, and then I have to watch so my cats don't eat them.  And when my cats DO eat them (since I don't keep watch all night long), I have to clean up the leafy cat barf.  All-in-all, it's a pain in the ass, and I just prefer not to have to deal with it.

When we got to the nursery in Indian, I just couldn't resist the lure...  I found some petunias with colors I hadn't seen before.  And since I was going to get those, may as well take a look at what else is there too, right?  The nice thing about shopping for flowers this early, is that there's still a whole lot of selection.  Usually, when I go after Memorial Day weekend, it's pretty slim pickin's.  (Note: The pictures are blurry because I couldn't figure out how to use the macro function on my camera.  It's been so long since I tried, that I actually had to look up the user manual online to figure out how to change the settings.  Then once - I think - I had it set right, the stupid auto-focus kept picking up something behind the flowers.  If you look closely, you'll see that either the leaves or the pot/dirt are in focus rather than the flowers.  And those are the BEST of what I tried to get.  Dumb camera.)

I talked to the owner at Forget-Me-Not Nursery for a bit, and she recommended another greenhouse in Anchorage - that I'd never been to before (can't recollect the name right now) - for more petunias, so we back to town for more shopping.  So much for waiting...  Five flats of flowers later, I figured it'd be easier to haul the plants in and out of the house if they were in pots.  This is practically a record for me getting my flowers planted.  I didn't do them all - just the petunias and one other pot - I'll finish up the rest of them another night.

And now it's crystal clear why I don't like to get flowers this early.  Five trips to get them outside - have to close the slider in between so the cats don't escape.  Five more trips to water them.  Five more trips to bring them in at night.  And then I have to keep the spray bottle by me so I can fend off the kittehs when they decide to visit the salad bar.  It's going to be worth it, right?