This weekend, Big Boy-O accompanied me to our local nursery, which is my favourite local shop to potter around in and browse. I love walking among all the greenery, little (or sometimes) big, pots of plants that just calm me down. It’s my version of Holly Golightly’s Tiffany’s in this little corner of London town.

I go every so often… perhaps once a week or every 2 weeks, whenever I have some time or an excuse over the weekend. More often when I’m upset or stressed. I like looking at plants and deciding which I might buy / bring home / adopt… usually not immediately… but at least create a pipeline of potential plants.

From time to time, I also ask Big Boy-O for his opinion on which plants he prefers (among my choices), or which he likes (more generally), or might like to adopt and raise.

This time, I asked him if he would like to pick a plant, and if so, which plant he’d picked. He went around with me in the greenhouse, peered and inspected different plants… and then finally decided on a Dracaena Marginata Bicolor. He like it because it looks cool / like a tropical palm tree (“like a coconut tree”), the colours are nice, it’s cheap (“only £5!”), and the name sounds cool (“sounds like dragon”). After such a compelling set of reasons, how could I say no?? I checked it out and apparently it’s quite easy to look after, but toxic to cats. So I checked out the toxicity level and outlined the risks and potential mitigations to Big Boy-O and asked him if he was sure he wanted to buy this plant.

He thought about it, asked a few questions, and then nodded. We went back in and he then picked out the specific one which was the bushiest. We came home, and transplated the plant into a bigger pot.

I can’t wait to watch them grow – both boy and dragon tree.