I had two nice gardening surprises today. The first actually happened yesterday, but I am counting it for today, because I actually got the canna rhizomes today.

A colleague at work asked me last week about digging up cannas. I explained what he should do and then also commented that he was bound to dig up waaaayyyy more rhizomes than what he had planted, so if he found he had more than he needed for next year, I could, um, take a few off his hands.

I even told him about how I had so many cannas one year that I actually sold some of the extras at a garage sale. (They went quick!) And then later I was trying to remember how it was that I could go from having so many cannas that I sold some at a garage sale, to having just one that I bought and grew this past summer in a container on the back patio. I think, if I recall correctly, I ended up moving at a time when I had to leave them behind. Yes, let’s go with that…

Anyway he brought me some cannas yesterday, but I didn’t have a chance to get them before I left. So today we transferred the nice big box of canna rhizomes from his trunk to my trunk. They are now laid out on some newspaper in the garage to cure for a few days before I put them in some bags with a bit of peat moss. I don’t want to dry them out too much, but want them to be “surface dry” so they don’t get moldy. I’ll store them in the garage which should be the right temperature for keeping them through the winter.

Now I can mull around for a few months where to plant some old-fashioned red cannas.

The other nice gardening surprise today was that on the way home I stopped at an office supply store and just down the way from where I parked I saw a sign that read “Harvest Moon Hydroponic…. What? There is a new gardening store like that on my way home and I didn’t know about it? I was pressed for time and didn’t go in, but I drove by real slow to check it out. Then when I got home I looked it up on the Internet. Yes, there is a Harvest Moon Hydroponics and Indoor Gardening Supplies store on my way home from work.

I must be careful, especially at this time of year, not to get too close to that store if I am in a weakened state or feel like I need to buy myself something. I could end up with something like this, which could result in a very expensive salad!