From Where I Sit

By Pat Spilseth, Columnist

Last weekend as I set the clocks ahead an hour to Daylight Savings Time, I remembered that Spring FINALLY officially arrives on March 21! Though March entered like a roaring lion, with loud, whistling winds, mountains of snow and icicles; hopefully, March will end like a lamb, with gentler breezes and warmer temperatures. Having endured endless days of gray skies, freezing temperatures and snow that falls day after day after day after day, this March, I’m really ready for SPRING! At least we’re not living in California where houses are collapsing and floating away, people losing everything! We Minnesotans are strong. We can hold on for a few more weeks until the flowers peek through the dried leaves and chunks of dirty snow.

Henri Matisse wrote, “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”

Last week column writer Robin Trott wrote an article about fragrant flowers for our cutting garden. That got me excited about Spring. I remembered my Mom’s fragrant sweet peas growing on a wire trellis outside our kitchen windows and her red poppies swaying in the breezes. I’ve enjoyed the purple and pink phlox and purple Siberian iris in my gardens and my favorite red and pink geraniums that bloom all winter long in my kitchen garden window. Blooming, scented flowers produce smiles on these long gray winter days.

March 21st is the vernal equinox, the beginning of SPRING. March winds have been blowing with gusto; rain is urging trees and flowers to bud, and the icy edges of the lake are melting. All this gives me hope of what’s to come.

Resurrection is April’s signature. The season of darkness diminishes, and the season of light increases. In the woods trillium, hepatica and Dutchman’s Breeches will soon be sprouting. In my garden violets and tulips will bud, and lilacs will burst open with their fragrant glory.

Pablo Picasso said, “If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes” we would be amazed at the word around us.”

It’s time for pussywillows and forsythia to appear, if not in the woods, buy some at a florist’s shop. Georgia O’Keeffe observed that “In a way nobody sees a flower really, it is so small, we haven’t the time–and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.”

Gardening catalogues will soon be arriving in my mailbox reminding me that it’s time to begin planning my gardens. Truthfully, I have a bit of dread about all the work it takes to create and maintain a garden. Perennials are my favorites: they reappear every year, requiring little maintenance. I can count on blossoms from Siberian iris, coneflowers, a few lilies and those hardy tulip bulbs we bought years ago in Amsterdam.

Did you know that in countries around the world, different flowers mean different things? Here are some examples of our North American flowers, and what they signify. Don’t send yellow roses to your love: I read somewhere that they mean infidelity…not a good message. Send daffodils. They symbolize rebirth and new beginnings, a sure sign of spring.

Azaleas appear with tulips, daffodils, lilies and hydrangeas on Easter Sunday. The altars of many churches are filled with blooming color and vitality of new life. Azaleas mean temperance and passion.

My three favorite flowers appear each springtime. Early blooming tulips stand for wealth and prosperity. A friend of mine carried lovely white tulips at her spring wedding. Lush purple hyacinths look so elegant in a tall glass vase. Their tall stems signify playful joy, sports, and games. Hardy pansies with their sweet faces in purples and yellow mean merriment and deep thoughts. Each of my favorites create spring indoors when I put a bouquet on the table.

Though peonies don’t last very long, their heavy, fragrant blossoms are a sure sign that summer will soon arrive in Minnesota. Trouble enters my house when I pick several peonies and put them in a vase on the dining table. ANTS appear! Peonies signify compassion and bashfulness.

My neighbor has bouquets of hydrangeas growing in her yard. Their large white blossoms line the white stairway steps leading from the lake up the her house on the hill. Judy dries them in the fall, and they appear in wreaths hung on entrance doors and above the fireplace. Hydrangeas signify enduring grace and beauty.

Mom grew tall, red poppies in her garden that seemed to float in the breeze. They stand for beauty, fertility and eternal life. Two of my neighbors plant a showy, yellow variety of poppy that is very fragrant.

Maybe by April the snow will melt and Spring will really arrive, not just on the calendar. Take a walk in the woods or down the sidewalks of your neighborhood to look anew at this amazing world we live in.

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To contact Pat, email: pat.spilseth@gmail.com.