All The Flowers!
I just pick one flower to love??! What a tough ask. Picking one flower that I love best is like asking me to pick a colour from the rainbow. They are all exquisite, they come with stories, and elicit feelings of wonder and awe. I love spring for the pop of colour from the flowers. I have always loved the colours, the aromas, the perfection of them.
My earliest recollection of flowers is the dandelion. I know, I know, it’s a weed, but how can it be bad when that beautiful shock of yellow dances in the green grass for those few weeks? I remember picking them for my mom everyday on my way home from the bus stop. And, the beauty is that it’s now paid forward when my kids collect a beautiful bouquet for me. How can you not love the dandelion?
The Lily of the Valley and I have a past. It started out pretty shaky, but we’ve learned to love again. I must have been four years old, watching my parents tenderly care for the garden. Weeding in particular. It seemed they spent a lot of time at it. And so my little inquisitive mind asked “how do you know what to pull out?” The response was “things that don’t flower.” So at the beginning of spring as the lilies of the valley were still just green buds I yanked all those bad boys out and tossed them in the trash. Apparently I was not helpful that day! I can laugh about it now, and the irony is this new house we bought is littered with the delicate little flowers. They are beautiful and fragrant. I know now what they look like, and I patiently wait for them to flower.
Roses: it would be hard to think of flowers and not think of them. Roses were in every garden I had growing up. All varieties. I loved to pick them to make fragrant bouquets in the house, and despite the numerous thorn pricks, I still love them. The sight of a rose brings me back to early days of appreciating nature.
And the clematis, well that one is more recent love, but brings a smile to my face when I think of it. When I asked my husband early in our courtship what to get his mom for Mother’s Day he responded “She wants a Chlamydia.” I died laughing and then corrected him as to what I was pretty sure his mother had meant, but the joy that comes with these pretty flowers for me is priceless.
And the majestic sunflower. The school project that every kid planted in third grade and brought home in a Styrofoam cup. This was my first taste of successfully caring for something other than a doll. The sunflower is a reminder of hard work and loving dedication.
Ooh and wave petunias. Love those, they were my attempt at apartment gardening. And, thankfully it was successful. I loved those mornings watering and talking to them as they fluttered in the breeze, very pretty, and easy to care for!
The one that elicits romance for me though is the Hibiscus. So pretty, so tropical. It’s a symbol of vacations away. Every vacation destination I have been to involves a camera full of the many angles of the hibiscus. I grow them in my yard in the summer. They bring me peace. They are a dreamy flower for me. They elicit wishes and dreams, and tropical places to see on my bucket list. Ahh….
And for all the others thousands of varieties of flowers I left out, know that I love you too!
Written by: Melanie Groves; Metamorphosis Healing
