on sunday, when we were driving to our pastor’s church after the sunrise service for pancakes, i saw a beautiful tree in someone’s yard. it was covered in fluffy pink-white blossoms. it was so pretty, i just wished i could smell it!
two years ago, when we went to visit friends and family in virginia about this time of year, i was so jealous of their local flora. dogwood trees blooming everywhere! sadly, dogwood’s don’t do so well up here, so i have to content myself by looking at this picture. but isn’t it calm and relaxing to look at? it’s an arrangement i made at my friend’s house. i was so impressed by all of the different flowering things in her yard that one of the first things i did was to make three or four different arrangements to sprinkle throughout her house. she was impressed that i had made them just from the stuff in her yard. i love to arrange blooms from the yard. currently, my only blooming flowers are some very short-lived (but gorgeous) poppies that come up each spring. at my last house, i had a small ocean of lily-of-the-valley in the backyard that made the most incredible smelling bouquets, and two peony bushes that make giant pink puffball bouquets, and i’d planted some sweet peas that also smell wonderful, and there were always some wild violets that would come up. before that house, i lived near a friend who loved for me to come and cut flowers in her yard. she had a rambling hedge of sweet peas and honeysuckle and i can’t even remember what all she had, but it was all gorgeous (and she also had a weiner dog who would sit in the window everytime i came over to “steal” flowers who would sit in the window and yip at me–only his yips always sounded like he was saying, “no! no! grrrno!”).
i remember the first time i made an arrangement from outdoor flowers. it was at my mom’s house and i think i was home for a visit from college. she had a giant barrel planted with pansies outside the front door and i was admiring them. she suggested i make a bouquet for the table and i protested that we shouldn’t pick the flowers and she pointed out that we’d enjoy them just as much indoors and that they wouldn’t last any longer outside. she encouraged me to pick the prettiest ones to put in the table bouquet because anything left outside would get bug-nibbled and wind-beaten anyway. i ended up with a really nice, cheerful bouquet of pansies for the table that made me smile whenever i saw it. i took the lesson to heart.
now, i have the poppies and … the farmer’s market. maybe this year i should plant something. i just have to find some sunshine in my yard somewhere. does anyone know of a good flowering/cutting plant that grows in shade? wet shade?
