Monday, October 11, 2010

Winter Flowers

I enjoy local flowers from my own property all winter if you are willing to consider holly berries flowers for a couple of weeks. Actually, even then I'm also harvesting winter sedum, which is very pretty now, turning from pink to purple, and can provide a nice foil for the holly. I usually harvest paperwhites indoors from about Thanksgiving to Christmas.

My bulbs for winter arrived this week, and I'll be busy potting them up now. This year's are from Fedco, by far the least expensive, but you might still get them from Dutch Gardens or locally. I like crocuses in mid-January, then tete-a-tete daffodils, then big daffodils and then tulips. By then the daffodils from previous years that I put out in the myrtle at the back of my yard are in full bloom, and I can get flowers from outside.


The "winter rose" that I bought three years ago was beautiful last year and this in March through April, and I have enjoyed outside flowers for many years from spring through the holidays. Chrysanthemums last through the first few frosts.

When she was a teen-ager, my daughter asked, "If Americans had as many flowers growing in front yards and public places as they do in other countries, do you think we would be more peaceful?" It's a question that has intrigued me for decades, and provides one justification for putting so much time into flowers. The main one, of course, is that they make me happy.

Pat

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