While working in our yard last weekend, several gardening questions came up that I had no answers to like
…What is that fungus growing on our locust tree?
…What is that plant growing right next to our house?
…Why did our tomato plants die so soon?
I needed to talk to someone who works at a nursery, someone who knows their stuff!
So yesterday, during my lunch break, I decided to stop at a nursery about a mile from where I work.
As soon as I got out of the car, I realized that I didn’t want to ask these guys my questions. Although I had previously bought a truckload of soil from them to fill one of my planters, this wasn’t one of my favorite nurseries.
So, instead of heading inside, I stayed outside and started wandering through their shrubbery section. Fairly quickly, a short, fat grey-haired Italian man in his 50’s or 60’s came and asked if he could help me with anything. When it became obvious that he WAS NOT going to let me brush him off, I told him that we were looking for burning bush plants. He showed me some small plants in 5 gallon pots for $25. Same old, same old…
But then, he took me around the corner and showed me some 3’-4’ plants listed for $49.
He said “We-a jus-a reduce-a da price-a by-a 50%! We-a gotta make-a some-a room-a so-a we-a tryin’ to-a move-a them-a out-a he-a.”
Now that is a great price! And 10-15 plants to choose from!
And right next to them were 12 beautiful Japanese maple trees! What a coincidence! I have been looking for the ‘right one’ for nearly two months.
However, my enthusiasm waned when I saw the $249 price tag.
Seeing this, my Italian guide piped up, “That’s-a on-a sale-a…25% off-a.”
That brought the price down to $200…That’s better but it was still a little out of my budget.
I then looked at my watch and realized that my lunch break was over five minutes ago!
After work, I went to the gym and instead of driving by the nursery on my way home, I decided to pull in once again. This time I went inside. My fat Italian ‘friend’ was waiting there.
“If I buy three of those large burning bush plants, will you give me a better deal on the Japanese maple tree?”
“After you-a left-a, I-a talk-a to-a Ben-a and he-a say-a we-a gonna cut da price a leetle more. We-a gonna take-a off-a $100 off-a da price-a. So-a, yes.”
In my head I thought, “You-a gotta deal-a!” But, my mouth said, “I can’t fit them in my Toyota (Paseo), so can I come back tomorrow with my truck?”
“That would-a be-a fine-a. I will-a be-a he-a at-a seven in-a tha mo’nin’.”
We just drove home with two 3-4’ foot tall burning bush plants and a beautiful 9’ tall, 2” diameter Japanese maple tree for a grand total of $213 including tax!
Like-a I-a al-a ways-a say-a, “Yahoo-a!”
