Spring Bouquet

Day 167: For someone with quite a bit of shelf space devoted to vase storage, I seldom cut flowers to bring in the house. There are some regular exceptions to that rule: a single sprig of pussywillows to acknowledge the changing of the seasons, and one or two cuttings of daffodils, which I have in abundance. Flowers last so much longer when they're alive, and if I want to see them, I have only to step outside for a dose of colour or, if it's raining, look out over their heads from my windows. Spring has indeed arrived in my garden, and almost daily, something new is opening up. The lilac is in bud, the heather is in bloom, the Red-flowering currant's pink tips are swelling and almost ready to burst into panicles of Nature's own miniature hummingbird feeders. Grape hyacinths dot the flower beds, always popping up in unexpected locations, and in the shade beneath Big Doug, the incongruously-named native yellow violets show like tiny sparks of sunlight. Meanwhile, my calendar reminds me that it is time to sow gazanias indoors if I am to enjoy their blooms in August, and a rank of other seed packets stands behind them, awaiting their respective turns. Winter, I say with great joy, is done.

Nasty Bits

Day 303: Despite the fact that I grow flowers, I very seldom pick a bouquet. After all, they last much longer on the plant, and I can see them by simply looking out the window. There are exceptions to that rule, of course: the spring spate of Siberian irises along the back fence produces so prodigiously that a missing dozen is not even noticeable, daffodils likewise, or the occasional wind-fractured stem of delphinium. That said, I have always loved nasturtiums, and this year's crop has utterly blanketed one end of the flowerbed to a much greater degree than ever before. Their trailing stems spill out over the sidewalk, threatening to grab my ankles as I pass by to go to the mailbox, and occasionally have to be re-trained to go that way rather than this. It's a friendly dispute, their persistent enthusiasm brightening my every visit to the garden. View of many of the blossoms is blocked by other plants, overhung with hellebore or spicebush or shielded by delphinium foliage, so I thought I'd bring a few nasty bits indoors.