If you’re feeling blue as winter lingers and spring seems a long ways off, go outside and take a look around – especially if you live in a mild climate like we do. When I went into the garden yesterday to scrounge around for some flowers for a bouquet, I was surprised at how much was already in bloom. And, to make it even better, these are things that are supposed to bloom in late winter, not plants that are confused and stressed by untimely warm weather.
Of course the most abundant flowers in my garden in late February are the Hellebores or Lenten roses. These begin blooming in January, putting forth gorgeous white, pink and mauve nodding flowers. If you’ve read this blog before you know that I have a love / hate relationship with my lenten rose, depending on the season. This is the “love” season. Last summer, though, I was so annoyed with them for crowding out other plants, I dug up buckets of them and dumped them on the compost pile.
Since then, I have created a new large planting area in the way back under my 200 year old oak tree. I’ve worked diligently to pull out ivy and mondo grass, privet and vinca to make nice new beds, empty of any vegetation. But, then I had to decide what to plant. A quick trip to the local nursery convinced me I’d go broke trying to buy enough plants to fill the new space.
So, feeling just a little sheepish, I went back to the compost pile to see if maybe I could salvage some of the discarded lenten roses. And there they were, valiantly struggling to come up among the leaves and weeds and other yard trash. Some were even blooming and I didn’t know whether to be impressed or scared of their dogged determination to live.
At the moment they look a little ragged, to say the least. Many of the stems and leaves, buried under refuse, are white with just a tinge of green. Many of the leaf stems are long and leggy. But with a whispered apology, I pulled them all out and replanted them in their new beds. We’ll see if they will forgive me.
It’s sometimes frustrating to use even the healthiest of lenten roses as cut flowers because they tend to wilt and droop when brought inside. If you cut blossoms that have already set seed, though, they are much more likely to stay fresh looking.
A multitude of bulbs offered additional blossoms for my bouquet, mostly daffodils but also some early snowdrops. And my beloved camellia, as beautiful as a rose, provided a focal point for the arrangement.
It makes me incredibly happy to be able to gather flowers from the yard on a cold February day. All that gorgeous pink and yellow helps chase away the winter blues. And, if in the summer I happen to say disparaging things about Lenten Rose, please remind me of this late winter “love season” when I pulled them out of the trash pile and heaped praises on their little nodding heads!