See the Beauty in the Ordinary

A Kansas Country Garden: Meanings and Memories

Poppies will forever remind me of Lydia, my mother's friend who gave me my first plants.

Some flowers come to us laden with emotion and meaning. There is more to a flower than just what you see. Very often memories of the giver of the original plant mingle with the blooms. The Victorians assigned meanings to all flowers making it possible to send a potent message with a bouquet. Of course some flowers had multiple meanings which could lead to some confusion. Beware of the yellow rose!

White lilacs have a beauty all their own.

It's the most wonderful time of the year. For me its not Christmas (too stressful), it must be spring. What makes it so wonderful?

After the freeze, the crabapple still blooms.

An erratic spring continues. A warm day, and the buds swell on the blooming trees and bushes. But the next day its cold and snow coats the green grass. Predictions are for a hard freeze that night. If only there was a way to stop it. The crabapples, the red bud trees, the Bradford pears, the flowering almond, the lilacs--all are vulnerable. A hard freeze would mean we'd have no blooms until next year. Not a happy thought.

Who can look at a daffodil and not smile? They are just so darn cheerful. And why not? Spring is here. It must be. I think the daffodils are smiling, too.

Hyacinths have a lovely, but sometimes overpowering scent.

A Kansas Country Garden: Farewell to Winter

All of a sudden it becomes clear. Winter will not last forever. No, we do not live in the land where it is "always winter and never Christmas." The first sign of this are the crocus. They did not wait for the snow to melt before making an appearance. That was last week. Now they are in their full glory, a patchwork quilt of color. Welcome, spring.