My Lifelong Love of Flowers

*Since we’re starting to see flowers blooming on every corner, here’s a nice guest post about flowers. Spring is definitely my favorite season!

I have always loved flowers and animals. I suppose being a “Virgo” had some influence on that – being an “earth sign” and all. Perhaps astrology had nothing to do with it, but I think it makes for a nice romantic story, don’t you?

If the truth be told, I was a rough-and-tumble tom-boy growing up. I loved being outdoors and climbing trees, catching frogs and snakes (yes, snakes!) and taking them to school for show and tell. I was quite saddened by my teacher’s reaction to the little green garden snake that I brought in for show and tell back in the third grade!

The little guy wasn’t any bigger than a pencil, and he was cute as a button! He wasn’t venomous, but the teacher told me to take him outside and let him go. That made me rather sad, since my parents would not let me keep any warm blooded pets!

I can remember the first day that I walked into a garden center’s hot-house. I had never, ever, seen so many potted plants in one place in my entire life! With my mother being allergic to all things living, we never even had so much as cut roses in the house! So walking into this garden center’s hot-house was simply amazing to me!

At the time I did not have any money with me, but I must have spent three or four hours just walking up and down the aisles, sniffing flowers, looking at every single cacti, every single ivy, every single orchid in the entire place. I thought I was in heaven! The earthy aroma, and the colorful flowers caressed my senses and I did not want to ever leave!

The next time I went to the library, I checked out a book about gardening. I started to read everything that I could get my hands on about flowers, herbs, vegetables, shrubs, and house plants. One of the first things that I did when I moved out into my own apartment was buy the supplies that I needed to create my own container garden and started to create several little terrariums. I think that is when I started to become interested in miniature landscapes, imagining that the container gardens and terrariums were the lawns of small garden gnomes and faeries.

I even managed to put a box turtle in one of the terrariums, and fed him dog food. I named the turtle “Terry.” I had no idea if the turtle was male or female, so I chose a gender-neutral name. Terry stayed alive and happy for many years in that terrarium until I had to move to a different state and I decided to release Terry back into the wild before I moved.

After I settled down and bought my first house, I decided that it was time to start decorating the garden and a company by the name of Garden Fun had a wide assortment of decorations to help my garden stand out. In addition I was so blessed to have some very dear friends that gave me clumps of irises and daylilies, tall garden phlox, Johnny jump-ups, primroses, and lavender from their own gardens. In no time at all I had the most beautiful perennial flower garden in town!

One of the best tips that I ever got was about underplanting using tulips and daffodils under day-lilies and irises. That method almost guaranteed constant flower blooming in the same spot! People still ask me how I managed to create that beauty, and when I explain it to them they look at me as if I am speaking a foreign language! But that’s OK by me! I don’t mind being regarded as the lady with the green thumb!

Comments

My Lifelong Love of Flowers — 7 Comments

  1. Underplanting? Now I must research this….I’m pretty famous for complaining about no flowers in bulb spots, this sounds like a genius solution!!

  2. I love flowers, too – and herbs, grasses, trees….I have a problem though: I have a desire to stick my nose into all of them to see what they smell like and sometimes I come out with a great rash or swelling. My husband thinks I should stop, butI just can’t!

  3. I love to garden! With Spring here, I ‘m headed to the stores to look at all the plants being sold. I enjoy the colors! I also never heard of ” under planting “, so checking it out here I come. I love to learn new things!

  4. Your garden sounds beautiful, I like the idea of underplanting. When you work in the garden you’re not just creating something beautiful, you’re also relaxing and meditating. Thank you for sharing this post.

  5. I just love flowers. I need to work on my yard a little more so that I can plant more of them. I have a hard time because I do not have a green thumb and I don’t think the soil helps me any in Florida. Thank you so much for sharing