Artificial plants and trees
Acadia peeked around the corner. He could see the guards in front of the door to the control room. Between them and him was a garden of artificial plants and trees or so he thought. It was a garden with a very important secret. A secret that was 
Acadia had been on the trail of this particular villain (Dr. Thunderclap) for weeks. He knew the ex-meteorologist was up to something, but it wasn’t until he got a tip from the guy who made the topiary in the building he was currently hiding in that he figured out the true plot.
Hector Bromwell was a Portland landscaper who did most of his work in those big office building lobbies. He used a mixture of live plants and silk plants from Silk Plants Direct since those looked more real than anything else he had come across. Nothing ruins a display more than an obviously artificial plant in the middle of real greenery, so Silk Plants Direct was his main supplier. They were fast, reasonably proced and the product looked great.
He had been installing the last of the items in the 4th floor lobby of the building when he saw Dr. Thunderclap (guy had a nametag that actually said: Dr. Thunderclap) walking into the control room. He happened to overhear the words: “freeze Portland with a giant ice ray” which seemed pretty significant, so he called the cops, who then called Acadia.
“Listen, Hector” said Acadia. “The Thunderclap building has a metal detector and I will never get through with my gun. I need you to plant one for me. Any ideas?”
“Well, said Hector,” I could bring it in with my tools. I always set of the detector but the front desk guys know me now. And I guess I could hide the gun in the toiary.”
“Perfect! Where will you hide it?”
“Well, I have an array of four Lavender Ball Topiaries. One is silk. I will hide the gun under the silk one”
Fast forward a few days and Acadia is staring at the topiary trying to figure out which one of the things is the silk one. They all looked identical. He would only have time to go for one, grab the gun and take out the guards. If he guessed wrong, he was sunk. He pulled out his binoculars and studied the plants. He could not tell the difference. Just as he was about to give up, he noticed one thing. It wasn’t the plants that looked different. It was the post. The silk topiary trees all had a slightly different shape to their pots. At last, Acadia could go for the gun.
He jumped and knocked over the plant he was sure was the silk one. He was right. And the rest took care of itself. No more ice ray. Case closed.