HeyPlantMan! Exotic Tropical Plants from St. Pete FL: Can you Text that name again? Back at Market this weekend!

Lots been happening around our place lately, it’s the proverbial ‘when it rains, it pours”, but then again, where the heck did the rain go?! Yes, it was nice to get a bit drying out, but this week, the radar lets us down every day in our little corner of the world of Northeast St. Pete.

In fact, ever since we got our “smart phones” 2 months ago, all we seem to do is check the weather radar constantly. Of course, it is nice to be better connected, and yes, you all will be thrilled to know that we might actually attempt to get one of those swiper things to do credit cards, but our biggest challenge with the new phones is being introduced to the world of “Texting”…I know, I know, most or all of you have been doing it for eons…let’s just say, between our big fingers and our increasingly dependent-on reading glasses, who knows what we are really texting? But then, ta-da, we found that handy dandy little microphone device which enables us to “speak” rather than ‘type”….You are nodding your heads and saying “ah, duh, yeah, everybody uses it”, but, did you know that Smart Phones are not so smart when it comes to Plant Names??

For instance, when I voice “Heleconia”, it comes out as “hell comes to its knees”. When I voice “ passion vine”, it comes out as “passing vin”. When I voice “market”, it reads “more eats” etc etc….so, yes, learning curve going on, so now I am probably scaring people when they see me “voicing” verrrrry slowly and verrrrry articulately”. I still end up having to backspace more than I ever did in High School typing class.

That being said, it’s a great way to be more connected with our customers, you, the people who support us, and talk/text to us, so please just forgive those funny little typos that might happen, and you can always tell some funny stories at parties about it.

Okay, where was I ? Oh yeah, last weekend we were not at Summer market as we went down to work for, and support another nursery owner, Ann of Colorfield Farms in Wimauma, as she was holding the first weekend of her Mango Festival (we thought “Exotic tropicals and Mangos, what a great fit?) Okay first, gotta tell you all little trivia fact, which is, “how did the town of “Wimauma” get its name?? Well, first got to mention, that our dearly departed partner, Rickie Oliver of My Mother’s Garden, was the one who explained it to us, and since we miss Rickie so much, whenever we hear the word Wimauma, we actually hear it as “why Rickie”…okay, so getting back on track. The story goes that the man who founded the town (which is kinda down by Brandon, but really more east of Sun city Center, if you get my drift), he had 3 daughters and wanted to incorporate their names into the town name…thus “Wilma, Maude & Mary” became….Wi-Mau-Ma…for those who really want the specifics, it is pronounced “Why-Mama” pretty cool, huh?

Okay, sooo, back again, we spent the weekend in the land of the 3 daughters with our beautiful exotics tropicals, passion vines and Mangos everywhere. What happened? Well, let’s just say, the Mangos sold well, unfortunately it wasn’t a crowd for Exotics, but hey, we did something different, we helped a fellow grower, we learned more than we ever want to know about Mango growing, drank lots of yummy Mango slushies and worked on our tans. By the way, the Mango Festival continues this coming weekend at Colorfield Farms, so if you want some Mangos, or other Fruit trees or just want to take a fun road trip, check it out..and tell her Mitch and I sent ya !

So, coming back to the present, we are amped up to return to our sweet Summer Market at Williams Park this Saturday, and we’ve got loads of great plants ! Oh, and if you notice Mitch looking a little “lopsided”, the poor thing had a tooth get infected this past week and he generally looks like that really round, rosey cheeked 7 dwarf guy, but with antibiotics and ice packs and my great cooking of pureed food, he will soon be his ole self.

Also, have to mention big news this week, our little mascot, 3 year old Morgan, who you may have seen pics and mentions of in previous posts, got a clean bill of health Thursday after another challenging round of chemo for his rare cancer, so we are very happy for him and his family !

Okay, I know I have gone on wayyyy too long here, I get that way when I haven’t posted much in awhile, so here’s some pics to make you oooo and ahhhh, hope you can get to market this Saturday, and if not, you know you can always call or email us, for your plant wishes during the week, or yes, please text me, I gotta practice:)