Splurge Story

in person , I ca n’t connect with our clause “ Splurge plant ” . From what I empathize , avid gardeners can go a second overboard when buy plants . I do n’t ever do this , but I be intimate it take place because people have recite me . It reminds me of something that happened to a ally of mine , not to me .

He was shopping at a local nursery wide known for its outstanding selection of cool and unusual plants . Sure , I shop there too , and am male person , but this news report is not about me . It is about my admirer , who is not me — and who happens to be quite better-looking for an honest-to-goodness lad .

Amid all of the treasures at this nursery , he spied a bush with shiny burgundy leaves glisten in the sun , as though the horticulture gods had focused a spotlight on this very plant so that he might gaze upon it . He was drawn to it , and reveled in its beauty . He loved it all the more because this was a new introduction , and he had seen it on his traveling for his gardening cartridge clip . ( My friend work for a gardening magazine publisher too . That ’s how I heard this account , which is about someone else . )

As he bent down to bring the plant to his cart , he materialize to notice the price ticket . Immediately , clouds obscured the sun and a frigid wind fuck up . It was way too expensive . He placed it back where he had find it — with , it seemed , a niggling piece of his soul .

He go forward shopping , but his attention always went back to those glossy Bourgogne leave . He looked at the carts of the other customers hoping that none of them had bought the in demand plant either . They would n’t value it , he was certain . Only he could give the shrub the home it deserved .

That ’s when he came up with a plan . He would purchase the plant ( motorcar defrayment be curse ! ) when he cognize his wife would n’t be home . He would plant it immediately , unlike his common praxis of celebrating the human action of industrial plant purchasing with a snack and a nap before spend a few days in the euphoria produce by a caper well done . Once the plant was in the primer coat , he would cover up the evidence . Mulch would obscure the freshly turn over soil . The charge card potentiometer would course fuse in to the existing stacks of glasshouse plenty behind the shed , just one more among the dozens . And the plant tatter would get squirreled forth in one of the old stashes of shred around the house , not in the pile of tag from new accomplishment that was growing on the back porch .

With the course of action light before him , he returned to the plant where he had placed it , slenderly obscured from the view of less discerning customer . He placed the shrub in his cart and felt the warmheartedness of the sun on his back . A bluebird perch on a nearby tree and chirped its approval . His someone was restored . Truly this was the correct decision . And he marched triumphantly to the cash register , think to himself , “ Nice choice , Steve . ” Oh , my protagonist ’s name is also Steve . This did n’t happen to me . Did I mention he was bounteous ?

— Steve Aitken , editor

From Fine Gardening # 193

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