Category Archives: Flowers

Keeping things light on the blog front this week is this peony post. Not much more to say, other than wish you were here to sniff them.

It’s easy to go overboard with the wealth of garden flowers on display now. Everyone is doing it, to judge by FaceBook and Instagram. In light of that, I tend to go the opposite way with my bouquets, keeping them simple and almost minimalist at this time of the year. This is a perfect example of that, as a single peony and dogwood branch comprise the whole of this arrangement, if it can even be designated as such.

When there is so much to see and do outside, I think it’s better to maintain a quieter atmosphere within the home. Summer is about to arrive, and with it all the noise and fanfare of the sunny season. We will need a space for silence and contemplation.

For me, flower bouquets are more important and necessary in the middle of winter, or when things turn gray and barren in late fall. The indoors remains a respite of peace and calm when the weather is sometimes too nice and hot outside, and with the cacophony of impending summer on full, I find little bouquets of simplicity a way of keeping things calm inside.

The single globe of allium that remains in the garden finished its much-too-brief blooming cycle last week, but I’m a bit backed-up on blog posts, so you’re getting to enjoy its architectural magnificence now. Spacing out such beauty is a boon right now, as I find myself stepping away from the computer and online world more and more every day, and it’s been much better for the soul. That’s not a bad direction in which to head. In service of that, take this brief blog post as a gift and go find some silence and peace. In fact, take the day. I’ll be back on Saturday morning. 

(If you really want something to read, visit this post, in which every single word is a different link.) 

Along with the lilac, lily-of-the-valley is one of those old-fashioned plants with whom most people of a certain age carry some sort of happy childhood memory. I’m not different from most people in that regard, and these rugged little perfume powerhouses remind me of my grandmother, who loved their scent so much she had all her bath products tinged with it. (It made gift-giving a snap since she always appreciated anything with their sweet perfume.)

They’ve been in their glory for the past two weeks, coinciding with the lilacs to provide a two-tiered fragrance combination that is the epitome of spring. In our backyard we have a patch of ‘Miss Kim’ lilacs from Andy’s Mum, and nearby a patch of naturalized lily-of-the-valley that came from I don’t remember where. The latter, in the typical invasive nature of the species, has colonized several areas of the yard since we moved in almost twenty years ago, and as much as I love the flowers, I’ve had to be rather ruthless with their encroaching rhizomes. It’s been a battle for a while now, though I usually let them have their flower show before cutting them back without mercy. Gardening isn’t for the weak of heart.

The foliage remains handsome and clean through the entire summer, and in fall it will occasionally turn a light yellow before disintegrating into papery wisps come the end of winter. In truly wretched conditions, it may prove more manageable and easy to control – a dry shade will eventually take its toll, but it’s nothing some moisture and a good topping of manure won’t turn around in a few short weeks. If you’re looking to coddle a few pips or get a large going from a small one, manure is also key, as is evenly moist but well-drained soil.

There is a pink variety that I have yet to see in person, and it sounds delightful, especially if used in a bouquet. Speaking of which, it takes a great deal of back-aching work to garner enough stems for a proper bouquet, but it’s worth it when the perfume fills a room.

When many of us are wisely taking precautions by limiting our travel and visits to family, we look for ways to connect through memory and sensory experiences that bring back loved ones who are distant or even gone forever. Such was the case of this bouquet of lilacs, which I picked for Andy in the hopes of reminding him of happy memories with his Mum, who gifted us with the original plant from which we now reap these armfuls of flowers.

A single vase is enough to fill a room with their sweet perfume – and these have other happy memories associated with them. They used to greet us every Memorial Day weekend in Ogunquit when we’d first step into our room at the Ogunquit Beach Inn. A stand of the traditional, old-fashioned New England variety lined the driveway, and if we stood on our roof-deck we could almost reach over and touch the lavender-hued blooms. The fragrance carried on the breeze – the quintessential perfume of spring, of hope, of welcome and warmth.

This year, the bouquet reminds us of those happy times, and the loss of them as well. Not in a sad sense, really, more a calming and reassuring presence of people and places we’ve known, and times touched by love and merriment. 

The genus Tulipa has been captivating growers and flower appreciators for generations. I remain charmed by their colorful, if brief, showing every May, and their slightly spicy scent that has yet to be accurately embodied in a perfume. It’s for the best. Treasures like that are more beloved for their elusive and temporal nature. That said, fragrance is secondary to the visual impact these bulbs produce, which is usually best the first year after they are planted. Some reliably perennial varieties have been produced, but I still enjoy these in other gardens rather than my own. Too many rodents would feast on them if I were to put them into the ground, and I couldn’t do that to a bulb that once caused a world frenzy. 

For the past few years, I’ve passed this same azalea in full bloom in a little side corridor of downtown Albany, and it always thrills. Not having spent anywhere near as much time as I typically do downtown thanks to New York on PAUSE, I’ve missed this sort of excitement – the color play of hot pink with the vibrancy of its green leaves. It is a stunning combination – an inspiration on so many levels.

These annual reminders of spring are getting noticed a bit more this year, maybe because I haven’t seen them on such a daily basis, or maybe because I’m seeing things in a way that I used to see them before grown-up concerns in life got in the way. 

This will be a quiet post, in a Sunday of quiet posts. We’re at that point, I suppose. If you’re lucky enough to be in the vicinity of a lilac bush in bloom, I implore you to pause whatever you’re doing (even if it’s reading this post – I’ll be here when you return) and go take a deep inhalation of its glorious perfume. It is the scent of spring, the aroma of hope, the fragrance of happy nostalgia. If you had a childhood where lilacs played any part, they probably have similar connotations. For Andy, they remind him of his mother.

I watched as he walked over to the lilac bush we’ve had since we moved into our home, a gift from his departed Mum. That single lilac has multiplied into a couple of stands over the years. Sometimes there is a bountiful bunch of flowers, other times the flowering is spare and sparse. The one constant is the fragrance – always the same, always redolent of our childhoods, of innocent memories. He stopped and breathed in their perfume.  There were happy memories in the scented air.

Lilacs remind me of my Mom as well, as they would always be blooming for Mother’s Day. I’d sneak out the night before and wrangle them from their gnarled stands, carefully cutting the stems and putting them in water as part of her gift presentation the following Sunday morning. We also had several groups of them on and near our property, so they reminded me of childhood and the first flush of spring – always a relief after the dour darkness of winter.

The day’s sun begins its slow descent. It lingers longer now, extending its warmth and light, delaying the day second by second. Blue sky backs the cloud of lilacs hovering near Andy’s head as he captures a photograph. The songs of birds mingle with the chirps of chipmunks. Nature has been in a good mood, and we are grateful for this. Sundays should be about gratitude.  

If this pretty little plant was more rare, more delicate, or more elusive, it would be highly valued and desired. Instead, its ubiquitousness and hardiness, and its ability to compete in our lawns, as given it the name of weed – and not the fun kind either. This is the common dandelion, with its sunny multi-petaled bloom, bright green serrated foliage, and, later, those whimsical seed-heads waiting for the wind to parachute them away. It’s not entirely ugly, it just gets a bad rap. And maybe part of it is deserved. No one likes an invasive species that doesn’t stay within its prescribed bounds, but where the world be without its rebels and rule-breakers? Maybe the dandelion just needs a better PR rep, a proper promotional campaign illuminating all its desirable qualities. 

The world is turning on its head. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? I shudder to even tempt the powers-that-be to answer that right now. Maybe when the apocalypse comes the only things left will be cockroaches and dandelions. And Cher. There will be beauty in survival, just as there is beauty in the dandelion.

Every year I promise to sprinkle forget-me-not seeds about the backyard, and every year I forget. 

There is a message in such madness, but I’m too tired to figure it out. 

It’s too soon in the week to be so exhausted. 

It’s only fucking Tuesday for fuck’s sake.

And it’s only May.

Maybe the cold nights are getting to me. 

Maybe Tuesdays just suck. 

My first brush with the Kwanzan cherry was a pair of ancient trees near the condo in Boston. I would walk beneath them, coming home on late spring evenings back when I worked in retail and had not a care in the world. I didn’t pay much attention to them, other than a passing glance, mostly because they carried no discernible fragrance. At the time, I wanted everything – beauty and fragrance and ease of cultivation, and anything that lacked one or any of the aforementioned traits got nary a notice. Yeah, I was that bastard. 

The beauty of the Kwanzan eluded me until my first spring with Andy at his old house in Guilderland. Off the wooden deck was a glorious cherry tree, alight with blooms on sunny spring days. It was a perfect posing spot, one that I used for work included in The Talented Trickster Tour: Reflections of a Floating World. That floating world was echoed in the falling petals of the Kwanzan cherry tree. The beauty was transient, making is all the more cherished. 

This year the Kwanzan in our backyard is putting on a spectacular show. Andy thinks it’s one of the best and I would agree. We posed under it for an anniversary photo (come back in a couple days for that post). One of the benefits of the cool spring weather lasting a little longer means that the floral show gets extended too. We’ve had years where our blooms have lasted only a couple of days, wilted beneath a brutal sun or ripped off in a windstorm. Expecting similar catastrophic results in this crazy year, I’ve been making the most of the show while it lasts, taking frequent breaks to walk outside beneath its beauty and soaking in the prettiness as much as possible.