I love flowers and have many favorites. In fact, the only flower I can think of that I don’t care much for is the waxy begonia (but I’m not sure why). About this time of year I long to see flowers in my garden. During the spring, most of the grocery stores start selling cut tulips, and I always buy them. Right now I have a vase of pink tulips on my kitchen table. On this gray and chilly day, their delicate white-tipped petals remind me that spring will soon be here. Yesterday I noticed the green of daffodil and tulip shoots just beginning to break through the softening ground, so I am hopeful.
Tulips are pretty to look at, but they don’t have a strong fragrance. For that you have to turn to other spring flowers like lilacs, or one of my other favorites, peonies. When I was growing up our small backyard was lined with peony bushes that would produce fragrant white, pink, and deep rose blossoms in late May. My mother always complained about the ants that usually accompany them, but she would nevertheless fill bowls with peonies for the table in the spring. I remember taking bunches into school for the May altar. Even now, the sweet scent of a peony transports me to my grade school years and I can see my younger self walking in the May procession in church with my offering of peonies. I have a row of peony bushes – three white, three pink in one of my gardens and anxiously await their arrival each year.
One of my favorite quotes about flowers comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “The earth laughs in flowers.” I hope to hear lots of laughter this spring and summer!
Tulips are pretty to look at, but they don’t have a strong fragrance. For that you have to turn to other spring flowers like lilacs, or one of my other favorites, peonies. When I was growing up our small backyard was lined with peony bushes that would produce fragrant white, pink, and deep rose blossoms in late May. My mother always complained about the ants that usually accompany them, but she would nevertheless fill bowls with peonies for the table in the spring. I remember taking bunches into school for the May altar. Even now, the sweet scent of a peony transports me to my grade school years and I can see my younger self walking in the May procession in church with my offering of peonies. I have a row of peony bushes – three white, three pink in one of my gardens and anxiously await their arrival each year.
One of my favorite quotes about flowers comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “The earth laughs in flowers.” I hope to hear lots of laughter this spring and summer!
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