The most stressful time of the year

*It's the most stressful time of the year* come on, sing along, you know the tune!

Twas the week before Christmas and all thru The Edge, the Gardener was frantic trying to wrap things up. 

The Final Exam needed to be written.  A review session needed to be prepared.  Grades need to be calculated.  Oh, the joys of teaching college students.

And then there's Christmas itself.  Gifts to buy.  What to get The Zack, my Favorite Nephew?  And The Dad - always a challenge.  And I'll need to clean the house before The Queen Bee and Her Entourage arrive.  Eeep!

Need to bring the stress level down.  Time to visit Kane's.  No, not Candy Canes.  Kane's, an LGC that has a heated greenhouse where they sell houseplants all winter.  

Ahhhh.  Heat, humidity and lush plants.

True, they have a lot of Poinsettias this time of year (painted blue with sparkles, really?  Why not get a fake plant, it'll last longer).  But at this time of year I want to pick up a couple of Cyclamen.

I find Cyclamen have a long bloom time and they have pretty foliage so they'll last me all winter.

It's a good investment for me since I crave bright colors during the dull, gray, New England winters.

I'll pick up two of them.

Um.  I might have gone overboard a bit.

But the big excitement at Kane's was this Anthurium andreanum (a 4.8 on the PATSP scale of difficulty).  I often see them for sale but they are always expensive.  This one was $10 for an 8 inch pot.  For that price - MINE!

So I bought a few plants and reduced my stress level quite a bit.  Kane's in my favorite place to shop this time of the year.  Even if I don't buy anything.

Now I can go back to panicking about the end of the semester and the holiday season and...

PS.  Thanks to The Queen Bee for picking me up some volumetric flasks for cut flowers.  Don't they look cool?  Well, if you're a science geek they do!