Palm, Fern, Umbrella Tree, Bougainvillea

I feel old and crotchety today.  Walking has been a problem for the past few weeks so I went to the doctor and he adjusted my back.  He said I knocked some discs out of alignment.  I played dumb and pretended I didn't know how I did it.  Now we all know how I did it, but you'll keep my secret won't you?  You saw those nice photos of the containers of plants, right?  They didn't magically get arranged my friend.  I jostled them and manhandled them this way and that.  I carried them up steps and pushed them around and then decided I didn't like them here or there and them moved them 15 ways to Sunday.  Of course they were full of soil and plants already.  These are all established plants.  Well, now that my doc made his adjustments, I can hardly walk at all.  I managed to plant the two dianthus and hang those planters on each side of the garage and water the plants today, but that's all I could do.  I cleaned up my mess, but I didn't even notice my dirty fingers until about 5 minutes ago.  The soil is embedded into the bases of my fingernails and I feel gross.  I did a nice little manicure on Monday and that is shot to hell and back.  The nails are all broken and I feel like the little orphan that no one will adopt.  
So I've been thinking.... no one just happens to suddenly like to garden.  We are taught by someone.  Somewhere along the way, we are introduced to the plant world and we develop a love of botany.  We all have fond memories somewhere.  I know my girls have some not so fond memories of me dragging them to the prairie while I was taking a botany class and I was observing the plants, doing measurements, taking photos, doing drawings, and all kinds of stuff for my class.  Either way, to this day, they groan at the memory and I smile.  Same memory... very different perception of the experience and I still draw pictures of flowers.  Sometimes we think about what we've lost since for many of us those that introduced us to the wonderful world of gardening are no longer around or spending time with us, but we really need to think about the gift we have been given.  The gift we are probably passing on to another generation or two generations.  Sharing a gift of loving to do something, the gift of a passion, is something we cannot quantify or pretend to have.  

Mystery plant

Today, I'm ending a little differently than usual.  Please leave a comment with a piece of advice someone gave you about plants that you thought was unique.  Don't forget to mention who gave you that advice.  Finally, if anyone knows what the name of this white flowering plant is, I would be very grateful, as I have forgotten and like I dope, I threw away the tag on this one.  It's a newer plant that I never grew before last year and it is very hardy and I'd love to be able to talk a bit about it.