Perhaps, it is the region of the country I live in, or maybe it’s the fact that I don’t take on a ton of home improvement projects on my own. Whatever the case may be, I learned an interesting fact this weekend: Home Depot sells exotic flowers.
I discovered this, not during a recent visit to the home improvement giant, but because my mother received a beautiful and rare tropical gardenia-like plant from my brother for Grandparent’s Day. Its actual name is: Na’u (Gardenia brighamii). I was shocked to hear that he purchased it from a Home Depot in Hawaii (where he and my parents live).
I have visited my local Home Depot on may occasions and strolled past various aisles worth of landscaping equipment and a few topiaries, but I don’t remember seeing any flowering shrubs, let alone exotic flowers. It prompted me to make a few phone calls and subsequently, I learned that Home Depot does indeed sell flowers and other trees and plants. However, it is rare that a store would carry exotic plants. Stores in Hawaii and California (and other regions of the country where the climate warrants carrying such merchandise) will stock unusual plant specimens. I just happen to live in an area of the nation where I’d be lucky to find so much as a potted marigold at my Home Depot.
So, if you happen to live in a warmer climate—rejoice! A trip to your Home Depot could yield more than a handful of light bulbs and a new handsaw—you could walk away with an exotic flowering plant. The plant my brother bought my mother from his local Home Depot is one of many native Hawaiian plants on the federal list of endangered species. According to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, the plants were once believed to have existed on all of the main islands in the dry forest, but now only two plants remain in the wild on Oahu, one on the Big Island, a few on Molokai, a handful on Lanai and a few more on Maui — numbering about 15 to 20 plants in total. Because the species endemic to Hawaii, these are the only plants left in the world, and they are being sold at the Home Depot—go figure!
My mom loves her new plant and says the small flowers smell like gardenias mixed with a hint of coconut oil. Have you ever bought a rare flower from the Home Depot?