P Is For Plantophilia

Plantophilia – Noun: The excessive love of or obsession with plants

Ok, I’m not going to lie, I made that one up. But after this weekend I’m pretty sure that it’s a real thing.

See, this weekend was the Jenks, Oklahoma Annual Plant and Herb Festival.

A little event I only became aware of on one of Opie and my weekly trip’s to George’s Pub in Jenks. I saw the banner last week and thought, “What the  heck, I need a few hanging plants for the back porch and a few more herbs for the garden. I’ll just run over to the plant sale first thing in the morning, beat the crowd and hope they have something I can use.”

Because I was thinking plant sale, like the plant sales churches and schools back home used to have as fundraisers.

Obviously, I hadn’t read the sign.

It was the Annual Plant and Herb Festival.

I’ve never seen anything like it.

First of all, I couldn’t get there right when they opened because, unbeknownst to me, Main Street was completely blocked off to accommodate all the vendors, and I had to detour all the way around the festival.

Then I couldn’t find a parking spot. There were so many people at the plant festival that I actually had to park two blocks away and walk back!

Then I had to wind my way through a mass of people for whom plants are clearly a religion, avoid the HANDCARTS and WAGONS that most of the people had brought to haul off their plant loot, and apologize over and over to people who couldn’t believe I hadn’t brought my own bag, much less a cart.

There were also actually 5 or 6 uniformed police officers walking up and down the street, weapons at the ready, primed to quell any plant-induced violence that might break out.

One woman even told me that last year her daughter made the rash decision to schedule her wedding before the festival’s date was announced and, sure enough, they ended up on the same day. However, never fear, the morning of the wedding, the woman made a quick side trip over to the Festival to get her plant fix for the year.

That’s right, the woman stopped at a plant sale on the way to her daughter’s wedding.

Excuse me, I mean plant festival.

Although, to be fair, I got a little carried away at the festival myself and greedily snatched this plant:

 Almost right out from under the nose of this older lady who was eyeballing it covetously.

Though, I did restrain myself and didn't horrify Opie by coming home with either of these:

But I am already trying to figure out where to get a cart for next year.