This afternoon Carrie looked out our front window and with extreme confusion breaking up her sentences said “What the… someone put… hey, there are flowers on our porch.”

This kind of thing has happened before, over four years ago. But this was still a surprise. Flowers don’t just show up, and these flowers were different. In a little pot were a few purple flowers that I’m sure Carrie knows the name of. No frills really, just a regular small potted flower like you’d get at Home Depot. Stuck into the soil was a “Care and Feeding” spike that informed us that a new nursery was opening up locally.

This was, hands down, the best marketing material I’ve ever received. But I don’t know why I feel that way exactly – maybe it’s because they gave me a free sample of what they sell. Maybe it’s simply because you can’t really get mad at flowers. I’m not sure, but I know that I’ll probably use this new nursery over Home Depot just because they came up with a clever way of introducing themselves by attacking my neighborhood with flowers.

Update: April 21
I didn’t mention who the nursery was last night because the pot was out in the front yard, but because several people have asked: Al’s Garden Center (someone please offer to give them a better site). Also, I didn’t notice this before, but the purple flowers are part of Al’s corporate identity – they use the purple flower as a logo, and call themselves “The Purple People”.

I’m still wondering if I’d be this excited if Oscar Meyer came and put a pack of hot dogs in my refrigerator. I doubt it. I’m probably mostly excited because of the flowers.