flowers

I love flowers. Flowers in the house, flowers growing in the woods and meadows, flower shops, flower catalogs, planned flower gardens and unplanned flower gardens. My gardens go toward unplanned. Here's one reason why...

Last week I took a walk to buy some birdseed and while walking through the neighborhood, passed a man at the end of his sidewalk with a wheelbarrow full of daylilies.

"Looks like you've been busy!"

"Yep and you can't walk by without taking some of these. You have two hands so you have to take at least two."

A little bit of chitchat ended with me promising to return with my car and a bin to take some of those lilies off his hands."

I returned with my car and bin, chose a bunch of daylilies, and then he said, "Come dig up  some ferns!" My garden is random but full of stories.

Another story about an unfamiliar plant...

Angus, the storyteller in An absolutely wonderful Scots Adventure talked about sea holly and how the bees love it. I am working on a new pollinator garden so off to the computer, point and click, and four sea holly plants were on their way. Silly me...I didn't put two and two together and realize that sea holly needs sandy soil so a trip to the garden store to buy some sand to mix into my Ohio soil. I planted them last fall and three of the four plants are now growing. Can't wait to see them in full bloom!

Last fall. the Groovy Plants Ranch advertised Allium Gladiator bulbs. The bulbs grow into giant globes of purple flowers and they're deer resistant and also pollinator attractors. I bought a bunch and planted them in a couple gardens. Again, I had forgotten about them and when we arrived home from being away for two weeks, the flowers had bloomed. What a fun "welcome home" as we pulled into the driveway.

Right now I am blessed to have two vases of flowers in the house. One of them is my Mother's Day bouquet from my thoughtful husband. The other is from my neighbor - a bouquet of peonies from her beautiful garden. Besides being beautiful, the peonies smell divine.

“A flower’s appeal is in its contradictions — so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect.”– Terri Guillemets