Sometimes…you find the unexpected

Last week I decided to make a quick stop at a local garden center to see if they had any red geraniums. However, when I walked in and was greeted with this scene, I knew I needed a little time to walk around. Like the old Southwest Airlines commercial said, “sometimes you just need to get away”!

I didn’t have a lot of time, but I did take a short walk along the pathways just enjoying the plants and peaceful atmosphere..

This trio of felines were busy watching everything going on that day. The live garden kitty did not make an appearance; perhaps he was napping in the area with the house plants that was nice and dry!

I found the elusive red geranium and was delighted to bring home a long-sought after Easter cactus, Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri (also known as Hatiora gaertneri) loaded in orange buds (it’s the one sitting by the angel kitty). The Thanksgiving and Christmas varieties are readily available and I have several, one of which is over 30 years old and has a story of its own. I’ve never seen the spring blooming variety anywhere, so this was a good find. I not only needed to get away and walk around for a few minutes, I needed to walk around and find this cactus! I think the kitties helped me find it!

I read somewhere that the Christmas cactus we see in stores during the holidays are actually a hybrid of the Thanksgiving and Christmas varieties; perhaps so because they are vey similar in both blooms and leaf shape.

On a humorous note, my sister brought home the Christmas cactus that my mother had in her house when she passed. It faithfully blooms every year right around the mid-January MLK Jr. holiday! We aren’t sure why, but it always makes us laugh about blooming at its own time!