Flower Power

It's time to scratch the itch.  I went to a greenhouse yesterday to buy my flowers.  I never wait until May.  I want good selection, no crowds - make that hoards buying for Mother's Day-time to think.  It's kind of like I decide we are done with winter and it's time to move on. Yes, we are expecting two more nights of very cold temperatures but the red geraniums I buy can be hardened off at home at this point.  I bring them in at night but put them right out again in the morning.  This weekend they go into their pots and permanent homes. 

I love this day.  I could go with a friend or even PH but I go alone to think. And choose carefully. And not be distracted from my mission.  And not be talked into or out of what I want. I don't want to be chatting with someone and then get home and find I missed half of my list. 

 Red geraniums are top on the list.  I buy hanging baskets and when I get them home I take them out of the basket, pop them into the urns and pots set up around the house and voila! Instant color and no waiting for growth. Red geraniums make me smile.

 I walked up and down the aisles for so long I got a blister on my heel.  It was worth it.

 I lost three lavender plants over the winter so bought three more plus four more (!!!)

 We live in the forest and have very little sun.  Most of the ground is rocky and nowhere but directly in front of us in a pot can something wonderful be seen and enjoyed.  It's a weird situation but the forest has become our landscape and yard.  I fill the porch pots with geraniums but do miss peonies and other posies.  I don't even know what this gorgeous flower is and I had to force myself to leave it on the table.

Pansies like cold weather so they are the first things we see garden centers feature.  The cold encourages them to hug the ground and grow close rather than bolt and grow leggy.  But they don't like heat so they don't last the whole season.  I like flowers like these in other people's yards along with tulips and irises and daffodils.  I like a flower that will last till October.  Like geraniums.

But the power of flowers goes well past spring and summer.  The little group of quilters I get together with here has begun doing something I think is unique.  Several months ago one of our group lost her mother. A few weeks ago another lost her mother.  Last week another lost her mother-in-law. 

Our group doesn't send an arrangement or basket of flowers to the funeral home. Our little group gives our friend a basket of flower fabric.  There are no rules, no color scheme, no homework to be completed for a show and tell.  We simply all give a yard of fabric in a basket. It is given in good faith, good intentions and goodness of hearts.