2810[top]5: Spring Flowers

By now we’ve had enough of the February and March showers (fewer April showers, please) and the gardening bug is itching. Today we have five pretty spring flowers to brighten the waning winter landscape.

Azaleas: Though the knockout roses have displaced the popularity of the azalea, there’s nothing more southern than a fiery hedge of azaleas in full bloom.

Try a native variety such as Flame, Pinxter, Smoothleaf, and the rare Plumleaf, which blooms long after other varieties have faded.

Carolina Heritage Nursery has several types and is often at the Matthews Community Farmers Market.

Geraniums: Actually pelargoniums and not true geraniums, these colorful flowers popularly adorn front porches from early spring to summer.

Make sure to cover them when a hard frost is coming.

Scented geraniums have edible flowers and leaves and range from chocolate and nutmeg to orange and lemon. Dry the leaves for homegrown potpourri.

Irises: Native flag irises are popping up to greet the spring, with other non-native varieties trailing behind. The deepest purple varieties are nearly black, offering serious drama for those who enjoy a little bit of edge.

Have a low-lying wet area in your yard? The native Flag and Louisiana varieties don’t mind wet toes.

Snapdragons: Not only do snapdragons add color and character to the garden, but the flowers make a gorgeous addition to bouquets for indoor arrangements.

Why Grow Them? Snapdragon puppet shows are a favorite pastime for the Burke family, move their “mouths” and make them talk!

Violets: We’ve already professed a love for the Violaceae family (violas, pansies, Johnny jump-ups) but right now the wild violets are putting on a spectacular show.

Pro Tip: If you don’t spray your yard or have dogs peeing on them, go out and collect the leaves and flowers for a wonderful addition to fresh salads.

The Portance of the Pansy

“If you, like me, haven’t fully appreciated the power of the pansy, take a closer look next time you’re at the nursery. Their cheerful demeanor can win over the most curmudgeonly of gardeners. ”

There was a time in my life where I really didn’t respect the pansy*.

Dotting landscapes in front of retail strips all across America, they just seemed too showy and dainty for my tastes. I like plants that can duke it out through the worst of seasons and survive. Pansies seemed to be a placeholder for zinnia season and I wasn’t going to waste my money.

More recently, though, I’ve come around to their colorful faces. The cheery yellows and purples are welcome sights in the middle of a gray winter. If we can’t have sun we should at least have their cheerful petals to brighten the days.

The flowers can wear a coat of frost and still look fantastic. Forget to water them for a bit and they’re fine. (You don’t want to drown their roots, though, so make sure they have well-draining soil.) They don’t complain about a little bit of shade but show off even more in full sun. And those colors! I think there are prettier and prettier colors every year; from deep plums to palest of oranges, the faces dappled with several colors at once, like a calico Muppet. Once their brilliance fades, just pinch off the flower head to encourage more blooms.

If you have a good source of pansies that haven’t been sprayed with pesticides, you can even eat the flowers. Is it a coincidence they thrive in winter and are chock full of Vitamin C? To me, they taste like bland lettuce, so I toss them in salads. Other ideas include topping cupcakes with flowers or freezing the blooms in ice cubes for an especially pretty cocktail.

If you, like me, haven’t fully appreciated the power of the pansy, take a closer look next time you’re at the nursery. Their cheerful demeanor can win over the most curmudgeonly of gardeners.

*For both simplicity and alliteration in my title, I’m lumping pansies and violas into one big happy group. They are, in fact, both in the viola family.

How to Read a Garden

On a rainy afternoon just like this one, I ran across this quote from the Roman Stoic philosopher Cicero.

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”

Being both a gardener and a writer, as well as a librarian in a past life, I fully agree with this sentiment. Being also a bit of a skeptic when it comes to internet quotes, I did a little research into these words. The general agreement is that Cicero did write these words in a letter to a friend. The literal translation is, “If you have a garden in your library, you have everything you need”. Many, if not most, homes of wealthier Romans had inner outdoor courtyards with a garden. So in this context, the literal translation may be the correct one.  

In my case, the literal translation may also be the more apt one. Most of my Life has been spent with books and gardens. Even my career has revolved around the the worlds of plants and words. They have informed each other, shaped how I see the world, and helped make me who I am today.

Gardens and libraries are both repositories of information. The written, spoken, and filmed words you find in today’s libraries bring the world’s knowledge to anywhere there are people seeking to learn. A garden brings the experiential version of much of that knowledge. Let’s call it an interactive library of science and art. So the two concepts support one another. You may experience some natural or man-made phenomena in a garden, and go to the library to find out about it. Or you may read about/hear about/see some amazing garden at the library, and then go and see it or try to recreate that effect. However the approach, the effect will be some wisdom gained.

And knowledge gained and applied, multiplied by the experience of using that knowledge, is in fact, a type of wealth. The designer and philosopher Buckminster Fuller offered this idea as a definition of wealth. We are always learning more and experiencing more. As we apply this knowledge and experience to our lives through our actions, we become more wealthy.

That’s certainly been my experience. Through my time spent in libraries and gardens, I have learned how to feed myself by growing, cooking, and eating lots of fresh food, how to heal myself by growing and using all kinds of vegetables, herbs, and flowers, how to construct shelters using plants and soil, how to provide money for myself by growing food/flower/fuel/fiber plants for others, and how to heal local and planetary environments by growing/planting/using plants. The biological processes alone could keep you busy learning, teaching, and doing your entire life!

Add to that the artistic and spiritual knowledge and experience you’ll find in a garden. I often say that gardens don't just feed our bodies; they feed our souls as well. We’ve all experienced the restful coolness of a forested garden. The riot of color in most flower gardens stimulates us and lifts our spirits. As we gain the confidence to create our own gardens, we have the opportunity to indulge our inner artist. Our creative nature is engaged, and new parts of the brain may even be activated.

Just as a well-loved book will have worn, stained pages, a well-loved garden will have worn paths to certain areas, often stained with the blood, sweat and tears of the gardener. Special sections of both books and gardens will be easy to find. That's where the most attention goes. Follow the most often used trail in any garden to see what the gardener enjoys most. Find the most dog-earred pages in a book to discovered the most treasured passages. In either case, the  knowledge is where the wealth is, because that’s where the Love is.

Remember to enjoy your garden (and your library), because THAT’S what makes you a successful gardener.

What's in bloom?

As autumn flowers start to open the summer flowers are still holding their own.