Flowers

Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson


The night has broken. It is too late to pick up the pieces and hastily, sleepily piece them together to block out the faithful morning sun. Golden tones rise up in the East, blending with and painting over the fading black and blue hue of a willingly receeding sky. Nothing shall keep the light from our faces. No pillar, no beam, not steel or stone can stand between the warmth of the rays and our cool, rested skin. And while we are eager to pull up our covers, hide our eyes, and prolong our slumber, there are those who are eager to receive the joy of summer's first mornings. Those who are brilliantly colored, brazenly beautiful and never shy. One would never find a bud unwilling to open, a petal too stubborn to smoothly pivot toward those first peeks of sun. In fact, there are those of these that spend their entire day following its cheeriness, its warm breath, its given heat from East to West until the day is done and they finally may droop, rest, and wait for its next coming. These are flowers, flowers, flowers.


We could all take a lesson from flowers some days. It's time for a little change, to keep me embracing life fully, and therefore this week is about not food, but flowers. Now, don't think one week of blogging about gardening will turn me into Martha Stewart Enterprises. Gardening is simply a hobby, but often its just the right change of pace.

Today my Mother and I ventured back out to a few of my favorite places. If you've read my blog before, you'd know that I adore Geauga County and it's bountiful produce and foodstuffs. Well, as it turns out, Geauga County produces some exquisite shrubs, plants, and flowers as well. Today's venture was to Urban Growers Greenhouse on Claridon-Troy Road in Burton, Ohio (Just up the road from my dearest produce stand, J & J). While perusing the vast aisles of a huge variety of plants, I fell in love. Yes, it was love at first sight. In fact, I can safely say that I've never had such feelings of love for a plant before ever in my life. This coleus is the apple of my eye...



I picked this up and walked towards my Mother's cart carrying this little four inch pot, and I told her that I loved this plant and I was going to buy it. This was just the inspiration. From there my Mom suggested that I plant myself a pot, with flowers that I liked in it, to help make our home feel more like mine. I guess she thought that if I could have one thing on the deck to look at that was mine, it'd make me feel better. She was right. So with coleus in hand I ventured to mix and match together a flat of other flowers that I liked and thought would look nice with my little plant. This is what I came up with...



After a good half an hour inside the humid and very toasty greenhouse, this is what our cart looked like...(my Mom loves flowers, really)...



We got home and I commenced with the planting, beginning with two flats of Impatients along the side of our house. Then a few more random little pots for my Mom. Finally, I got to sit down and get to work on my special project. It was so refreshing and fulfilling to work on this pot of my very own. Here is what I came up with, and hopefully in a few weeks it will be stunning...



And finally, just for fun, my Mom decided to try her hand at the camera while she was directing me on where the Portulagas should go. All I can say is that the flowers are almost as colorful as I am...




Next week: Rhubarb-Orange Marmalade and pictures from our trip to the produce stand. Back to food, no worries.