Eugh.

So, I was looking at buying plants yesterday (I was looking for a heavy pot to settle down Jazzy's top-heaviness and maybe some trellises but then Lowe's had to have a brand new shipment of succulents...) and I had just bought a Hoya Krimson Princess at Home Depot when I saw the same plant at Lowe's.

Me: Honey! Look, they have the same plant here and they look healthier.
My boyfriend (from now to be MBF): [looks up from phone near the cart] Cool!
Me: I can't just return the other plant, what do I do?
MBF: I don't know...I'm not going to enable you. (I already had 4 plants in the cart as it was.)
Me: [sees...things...on the plant I'm holding up] WHAT IS THIS?
MBF: (after a closer look) Looks like mites.
Me: EUGH!!!!!!!! Should I tell an employee?
MBF: They're not going to do anything about it.
Me: You're right.

Shame, really, because the variegation on the KP was just gorgeous. They had hanging baskets at both places but I really don't have the space for another Hoya that wants to grow towards the ceiling/floor, depending on it's growth habit.

I wish I had a picture of the mites. They were like cockroaches that didn't scram when you turn on the lights - they just SAT on the leaf like, 'Yo. 'Sup?'

The reason why I'm all EUGH is 1) I'm a new gardener blessed with nothing more than weird looking bugs I can't identify and one mealybug I effectively killed and 2) I hate bugs, but love gardening 3) Lowe's doesn't usually display such obviously infested plants. This Lowe's has more of an issue keeping the darn things alive. They're generally healthy plants bug-wise.

They had some really nice, semi hard to find plants. I had to put down a Kalanchoe eriophylla because the white leaves had some sort of brown-green coloration on the bottom leaves. I didn't know if they were fungus, so I just left it alone.

I should have got some photos for the passovers.

Anyway, I will be posting later today with pics of the new plants as well as some exciting new plant events.