The Plant Sale

Last fall I saw an event on Facebook that I thought that Doug would be interested in attending.  It was a plant sale at the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville.  We had never been there but loved traveling to the college town.  Doug had also talked about buying a lemon tree back then and I thought that there might be someone knowledgeable about growing one at the event.

Doug and I enjoyed the sale and the botanical garden so much that we actually bought a membership to Kanapaha.  Doug also got his lemon tree and has watched it thrive over the past year.  Because of this, he and I decided to attend this year's sale as well.  We knew a lot more about Florida plants and Gainesville, so we were both looking for to going today.

Doug and I left right after mass this morning as we were afraid of vendors closing early on a Sunday.  We walked through all of the tents looking for a new outdoor plant or two for our home.  There were a lot of orchids available as the Gainesville Orchid Society was hosting the event, but neither of us really liked orchids.  My favorite tent was hosted by The Peacock Cottage, but I didn't buy anything from them.  They mostly had indoor plants at the sale, and I knew that I could visit them whenever I wanted.  After a lot of searching, Doug and I finally found the perfect plants for our backyard - two bromeliads and one lime tree.  We were both extremely pleased.

After success at the plant sale, we took a walk through the bamboo gardens before heading to Relish for lunch.  Our last stop of the afternoon was Swamp Head Brewery where Doug tasted a few of their new beers.  The past few times that we had gone, I had looked to see if their alligator was visible in the pond.  Part of me thought he was an urban legend until I saw him for real today.  He was at least five feet long and a lot bigger than I thought he would be.  It creeped me out a little bit, but not enough to make me want to leave as we were up on the fenced in patio away from the pond.  No one else seemed in the least bit phased.

As soon as we got home from Gainesville, Doug and I repotted the three plants.  We could have waited, but with the wind and the fact that we will be gone next weekend, we decided that we would rather get it done today.  The two bromeliads looked fantastic in their new pots, and it was fun to see the lime tree next to the lemon tree that we bought last year.  It was a great way to see how much the lemon tree had grown in twelve months.  I am already looking forward to next year's event.