Oliver: Who knew going to buy flowers would be such an adventure?

I’m beginning to think that I’m not supposed to grow nasturtiums.

The plant has a lovely, edible orange flower, and the light green and white leaves remind me of lily pads. They are supposed to be a good companion plant to tomatoes, just as marigolds are.

The first year I tried to buy the plants, it was on a trip to a nearby garden center with my friend Laura.

Actually, it was my second attempt to get to the garden center that year, since the first time Tony decided that he didn’t want to put on shoes to go with me. Once we got the shoes on, it was another struggle to get to the car. Just as I got him to his side of the car, it began to rain. I knew then that I just didn’t have any more patience left in the tank, so I aborted the mission.

The day that Laura went with me, we had her husband, Jack, stay with Tony. Since it was expected to rain, we had some raingear with us.

The trip began well enough, and soon I was collecting the plants I usually buy for the front yard: dianthus, snapdragons and a cute pincushion flower perennial.

The rain, when it started, got progressively stronger until the dirt of the garden center became a stream, then a river of water. It was coming down in buckets. I pulled up my hood and headed for the little building to pay for my haul.

As I stood in line, it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen any nasturtium. Although, honestly, at that point I wasn’t completely sure I even knew what they looked like. Laura asked someone where they were. Of course, they were where we had just been, and the rain didn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.

With a shriek, off I went back into the monsoon to gather up a plant or two, trying not to think about how wet I was. Despite the raingear, I was drenched.

By the time we finished paying, the weather had cleared up. By the time we got back to my house, the sun was out. Jack and Tony had a good laugh when they saw how soaked we both were.

Despite it all, I did get those nasturtium plants.

This year, I went to the garden center with my friend Diane, who has helped me in past years with weeding and planting my flowerbeds. I seem to have a lot of friends who enjoy gardening, and I’m hoping that one of these days their knowledge and enthusiasm will rub off on me. Here’s hoping, anyway.

My original plan was to have Tony hang out with one of our mutual friends, but when that fell through, I decided to take Tony along.

He wasn’t exactly thrilled with the mission, but he did relatively well. He held my hand (mostly) and only tried to wander off when I was distracted by trying to pay for everything.

However, when we got to the section of annuals and didn’t see any nasturtium plants, we asked an employee, who asked one of the owners. No, they were all sold out of the nasturtium plants. If we came back in a couple of weeks, they would have more.

At the time, I didn’t think too much of it. Two weeks wouldn’t be too long, and I could always pop over with Tony if I had to.

This past Friday was the two-week mark. I had another appointment in the direction of the garden center, so I thought we’d stop by on the way home. I even asked Tony more than once if he would be OK with that. I kept getting a nod of yes.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan when I turned into the parking lot. I wanted to look at some pots and get some potting soil, as well, so this was going to be a multipurpose trip. The weather was downright beautiful, so my spirits soared.

I think Tony thought he was going to sit in the car, so he seemed surprised when I asked him to come with me. We made it to the entrance, where there were some colorfully decorated pots.

I had enough time to look at one of the bigger ones when, suddenly, Tony grabbed my shoulder and squeezed so hard that I yelped. Clearly, he wasn’t happy to be there.

I looked at him and asked if he wanted to go home. My usually nonverbal husband then said as clear as a bell: “Go home.”

So, I aborted the mission again. No nasturtium plants for me.

At least not yet anyway.

• Joan Oliver is the former Northwest Herald assistant news editor. She has been associated with the Northwest Herald since 1990. She can be reached at jolivercolumn@gmail.com.