Tag: flowers

Posted in flowers

Mission accomplished

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Just a few days before, this bouquet brightened a room. Everyone noticed the fragrance of fresh flowers as they walked into the house. They smiled when they saw the vase full of colors on the dining room table.

It could have been from a celebration. Birthdays, anniversaries, and other holidays come to life with fresh cut flowers. My dad always got my mom an orchid to wear on Mothers Day.

I love seeing dancers and actors carrying bouquets after recitals or stage productions. It honors the work and hours of rehearsal.

Flowers go hand in hand with love and romance. They engage all our senses just like a special relationship. Wedding venues are filled with fresh flowers.

So are funerals and cemeteries. The sting of death is countered with a sensory reminder of life. Many express condolences with an arrangement of flowers.

Even with the best care, flowers end up like this. Brown. Lifeless. Dry. Discarded. But they accomplished their mission.

Posted in flowers

Fake flowers

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Those flowers look perfect, don’t they?

They always look perfect. They never change. No new blooms. No new growth.

Synthetic pansies.

Okay, they don’t look bad. They just make me sad.

The butterflies and bees aren’t fooled. They’re nowhere in sight. There are no buds, waiting for just right day to open up. None of them follow the sun across the sky. Nothing wilts. Nothing revives after an afternoon shower.

The colors will fade. Everything fades in the Florida sun. Maybe not today, but one day. And there will be no new replacement color.

And they smell like nothing. They are as fragrant as pictures in a book.

Flowers are a great reminder that no one has to bloom every single day. We can rest, recover, and resurface with renewed color, fragrance, and new growth. We can treasure a moment of beauty rather than take tomorrow’s for granted.

Most importantly, we don’t have to fake it. Just be yourself. You’ll bring color, aroma, and life to a world that desperately needs it.

Posted in garden

Suddenly the yard was filled with color

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Night was just about ready to give way to the dawn. It was just light enough for a yard full of purple flowers to catch my eye. I and the dogs walk by here several times a week. It’s like they appeared overnight. Some kind of daffodil? A wildflower?

Google identified them as Zephyranthes, sometimes called a Zephyrlily or Rain Lily. It’s a bulb that thrives in subtropical climates like ours. They tend to appear after a rain shower.

The thing I found interesting is that this wasn’t a garden. It’s a front yard. These bulbs were planted, propagated, and sprung up through the lawn. Okay, so that lawn wasn’t that great. But the flowers were!

My dad had lots of flowering bulbs in his gardens. The crocuses would show up first, sometimes while there was still a little snow on the ground in the early spring. Tulips and hyacinths would follow, filling the front yard gardens with bright colors. But only for a week or two. Then they disappeared till the following spring.

That was up north. Garden life is different in Florida. The only flowers from bulbs I’ve seen here are amaryllis. But now I’ve seen the rain lilies. I would love to have a whole bunch of them sprout up overnight!

Posted in garden

And suddenly…

Posted on by William Douthwaite

IMG_7332

About six months ago, a friend gave me about 18 bromeliads from his yard. They propagate well in Florida, so he had to thin out his beds. I planted them in a few different places around my yard. They took root and began to propagate, but all I got was greenery. Until today, when all of a sudden one caught my eye as I passed by with the lawnmower. I didn’t know what to expect. They’re beautiful!