New plant!

After leaving the art museum yesterday, we trundled around the city for a bit, and stopped in at the Smith and Hawken garden store. Among the various interesting and overpriced plants and "garden accessories" we noticed this cool ivy topiary that was 85% off the regular outrageously inflated price. So I talked Mike into it while keeping a mostly negligent eye on the kids, who did no damage but expressed great interest in the fragile and expensive garden stuff. The employees were frosty to the point of iciness to us (the kids, maybe? Or was it that we're not up to their usual yuppie standards? We couldn't tell.) Once we decided to buy the plant, one employee volunteered that we had gotten a bargain (since the original price was a mind-blowing $150! we had indeed) and the other offered us some care tips for the plant. Now, note, we didn't do anything to suggest that we were rock-bottom stupid, but she suggested misting the plant and then cautioned against overwatering, saying that we didn't want to use "a regular size cup, but maybe a sippy cup full of water" weekly. Um, lady? Just because I've given birth to these two charming children currently ransacking your store doesn't mean I'm unfamiliar with standard measures of volume. I appreciate the directions, but the whole interaction was bemusing. I much prefer the cheerful folks who work at my favorite fancyish nursery down the street - they presume that I'm more or less able to keep a plant alive, and talk to me like an adult, and don't mind small garden enthusiasts when I bring them. But I digress. Anyway, we now have this very pretty ivy topiary in the living room and when I dutifully gave it its weekly cup or so of water yesterday I noticed that the smell was something between earth and a lemon - whether this is a fancy Smith and Hawken plant additive or the ivy's natural scent remains to be seen.