More office shenanigans

Googly eyed cones in Georgia's car
Originally uploaded by sassycrafter

The cycads in front of our office recently produced cones, which meant that it was time for more office pranks.

Last year Georgia discovered one of the cones during an after-work weeding party and was pretty grossed out by it. Naturally, I absconded with it and then put it on her office chair for her to find the next day. She wasn't exactly pleased.

I figured that I needed to step things up a little for this year's cone prank. Given our collective fascination with googly eyes (see my post about another related prank), I figured I couldn't go wrong with adding googly eyes.

Plus, I thought that it would be great to plant the cones in Georgia's car, where she would least expect them. She's been trying to beat the Florida heat by leaving her windows cracked, so it was pretty easy to finagle my way into the vehicle.

Needless to say, she was surprised. In fact, I think she actually kind of liked it.

Now the only question that remains is what prank can I dream up next?

Bonus images!

I took oodles of shots while I was down in Ft. Lauderdale and I can't resist posting a few more. Here are a few of the MANY bromeliads that we saw at Fairchild. You can see some more of the Aechmea blanchetiana in the first shot. And what a striking color combination with the purple Tradescantia pallida and the silver-colored palm!

I've read that Aechmea blanchetiana grows green in the shade and turns that brilliant yellow-orange when it's in full sun. I'd love to find some of these for my yard, but I worry they may be too tender for my area even if I covered them during cold spells. We'll see.

Many of the bromeliads around the garden (like this red one) were just plopped into a giant hunk of limerock--very classic Florida.

Bromeliads can survive like this because most of them don't rely on driving roots into the soil to take up water. Instead, they collect water in the natural cups that form where their leaves come together.

Fairchild also had tons of fabulous cycads, more than 200+ species according to the Fairchild Web site. I'm only posting one shot now, because the rest are still on the work camera.

And finally, I'm posting one shot of the plant with one of my favorite botanical names--Monstera deliciosa. Some people also call it Swiss cheese plant because of the naturally occurring holes in the leaves.

Again, this is another true tropical plant that probably wouldn't survive in Gainesville's chillier weather.