Rewind
Spring garden colors arrive in shades of blue, pink, and yellow. Warm temperatures and recent rain means most spring bulbs have bloomed. I greet them like old friends who’ve been away for a while. We pick up right where we left off.
Daffodils wait brightly with their full bloom faces turned toward the sidewalk by my back door. One of my fonder gardening decisions includes replacing all tulips with daffodils, and then branching out beyond the standard yellow variety. Peach-hearted daffodils with cream-edged frills lean toward the sun next to those in monochromatic yellow. Our long line of rain showers left hyacinth and crocus weeping — their heavy burdened flower heads droop toward the ground.
Today’s poetic grey sky makes me appreciate spring flower arrangements that much more because they have the audacity to beam bright colors despite the wash of anchored clouds blanketing the horizon.
Do you wait for spring to burst open, too? Have you found your favorite ephemerals emerging from winter slumber, and do they make your days a little better, a little shinier than before? Here are a few of my favorites from this month.
Tulips barely last in a yard frequented by rabbits and deer, so daffodils are the showiest spring flower I grow in the gardens. Other, more subtle flowers fill out the garden beds, like hellebore and Virginia bluebells, but I keep those tucked into the landscape.
Snapdragons started from seed in March, and now I must upsize their container before hardening them off outdoors. I estimate I’ll have nearly 50 snapdragon plants this summer.
I can’t help myself. This color blue — sacred and scarce — gets me every spring. And I know this is a dangerous love affair. Siberian squill is invasive; it bullies native plants by claiming open yards and running through wooded fields. So I pluck the flower heads and arrange them in bud vases while trying to convince myself that picking squill is the same as preventing it from ruining our habitat.
Ranunculus, queen of spring. Blossoms coronate papery petals into a regal crown of tangerine hue. Store-bought or garden cultivated: it doesn’t matter. I fall in love with them every time I pass by.
There’s always a stretch of April, right before the garden fully reawakens, when I can no longer survive without fresh flowers. No amount of positive self-talk can spin a dry, brown landscape into something worth looking forward to. Store bought bouquets do the trick. I use them to practice hand-building flower arrangements after a long winter hiatus.
This summer I plan to fill my window boxes with patterned coleus cuttings I’ve kept alive over the winter. But before they make it outside, I’ll arrange them into pretty glass vases and use them as ambient bouquets around the house.
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See you soon.
-Betsy