Of Bulbs and Flowers

"I will be the gladdest thing under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one."
Edna St. Vincent Millay

I do not think there is a quote which sums me up more than the one above at this time of year. Because flowers make me so happy … and yet, I am loathe to pick the flowers from our garden to add brightness and cheer to our home . I feel I would somehow be denuding the  garden and making it less lovely. Perhaps it’s because flowers do not last very long here. As the days pass they are drying and fading, retreating back into the ground.

Most of the flowers in our yard grow from bulbs. I find bulbs easy to grow, even for someone with not so green thumbs and weather which can be quite harsh. And every spring it amazes me that such beauty can emerge from those brown, wrinkly, dry-looking things we call bulbs.

Indeed, to my untrained eye, one bulb is very similar to another. And yet, when the flowers emerge, they are so different, so gorgeous, each in its own way. Because flowers are nature’s miracle enclosed in a bulb; a little secret nurtured at the heart of each bulb, born of rain and warm spring sun.

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.  ~Ruth Stout