The weather this spring can best be described as schizophrenic. It thinks its spring one day and winter the next. Putting smiles on our faces, sunlight warming our way through the day – then within 12 hours strong, cold winds bring us back to the reality that we live in South Dakota! The state where spring blizzards are more expected than not.

Because of this, last year, when I was shopping and saw beautiful, lush ferns for $15, I didn’t buy them. By the time the weather was nice enough to actually hang the ferns on my front porch and leave them there, not a fern could be found – affordable or otherwise.

Believe me, I called all the landscape centers in Sioux Falls, visited the big box stores that typically carry low cost ferns – and couldn’t find any.

In the end, I was able to get two sorry looking ferns at discount from the floral department of a local grocery store, but even with fertilizer and care, by the first fall frost they still looked weak.

So, the other day when I was grocery shopping and ran across $15 ferns at Costco – I asked Parker to hop out of the cart and loaded our cart with two HUGE ferns.

Like the hydrangea I purchased in March, I bring them in each night. I figure the extra effort will be well worth it when the stable days of May arrive.