… Well, it’s not quite spring, but it will be soon. My cousins in Framingham, MA, and New York City and my friend in Pennsylvania may doubt that, but my apricot tree is saying “yes!” And here’s proof: The nurseries are stocking spring flowers. Right now!
At noon I was sitting on the patio reading the paper and looked at my garden wondering when things were going to start blooming. The apricot tree started two days ago and the pomegranate tree has some miniscule leaves showing, too. But I was thinking of the flower bed and then it hit me: Hey, I could go and BUY some flowers and jump start this whole spring thing!
So, jamming a baseball cap on my unkempt hair and donning my sunglasses for disguise, I headed down to Lowe’s. Just walking into the nursery made me smile. My breathing slowed and my pulse dropped to somewhere near “resting.” I inhaled a deep breath reveling in the scent of fresh flowers. Ummm…
However, I discovered that they only had small flowers — pansies and petunias. Those won’t show over the bricks on the raised planter. Well, that was disappointing. BUT there’s another Lowe’s that has a bigger garden section and I headed that way. Better for sure, but the snapdragons were the little dwarf ones, not much better than petunias. However, they did have a couple of bags of planting soil marked half price because the bags were torn. I maneuvered them into the cart gently and didn’t lose much soil. AND I got a couple of chrysanthemums — pink flowers in pots wrapped in pink foil. Guessing nobody wanted them for Valentine’s Day. Marked way down. Okay, two bargains there, but no snapdragons.
Then, as I headed toward home, I thought about my local nursery which has good stuff — for a price. Still, worth a shot. And YES! Paydirt! Big, beautiful snapdragons well over a foot high and only slightly more pricey than the little dwarfs at Lowe’s. I grabbed a wagon and carefully placed 6 large flowers in it. At checkout, I asked the young man “Do you have a senior discount?” “Sure,” he said. “I could do that.” Then after a couple of surreptitious glances, he added, “are you a senior?” Oh, be still my heart! A bargain on the dirt, two chrysanthemums on sale, a wagon full of flowers — and he just made my day!
“Yes,” I assured him. “I’m a senior citizen any way you look at it.” I actually laughed out loud.
So the soil is spread in the planter, the snapdragons and chrysanthemums are snuggled into the dirt and well watered, and I’m looking in the mirror, repeating, “Are you a senior?”
I’ll have pleasant dreams tonight.
Oh, and to my cousins and friends in the east — you’ll get the last laugh this summer when all our flowers have wilted in the desert heat!
[…] It’s Spring ! […]