Happy May Flowers!

     April showers bring May flowers.  I tell you, my gardens are a riot of flowers and color this year, probably the most brilliant March and April I've seen in years.  Unusual, given this has been a very dry year so far.  Understandable, now that the new trimester system at school allows a "life" during bulb planting time.
  
      Sweet peas are the flower of April, my birthday month.  Since I hadn't planted these for years and years, I thought I should at least have some in my second half-century.  Actually, I found they take a lot more work than roses, what with all the training on the trellises, and they won't last as long, either.  But that first bunch brought indoors made it all worth it, as their fragrance filled the room.  I've been  passing out handfuls of them to my neighbors and co-workers, and they always seem to bring a smile.

      One friend has a problem with cutting flowers in her garden.  I reminded her that many flowers, especially sweet peas, proliferate after cutting.  It's called experiencing life...we die on the vine if we don't venture out of the garden.  I definitely feel like blooming more than once, myself.  They say the third time is a charm.

      Enjoying things French, I planted some French tulips this year.  These aren't really French; they have lacy edges, unlike the traditional smooth-edged tulip.  As a  child, they were the first bulbs I had planted as a gift from my grandmother.  Back then, I discovered when they came up that I didn't like them as much as the  smooth-edged tulips.  I never related my disappointment to her, and I didn't grow them again for years.  So, planting them this year was revisiting them and her. They turned out absolutely gorgeous, huge, flamboyant things, reminding me of the ruffled skirts of the Can-Can at the Moulin Rouge. Their beauty, like that of some of us "younger" things, was short-lived, but wildly passionate in their blossoming days.  I still have a little flamboyance left.  I'll have to go look for it.

     I still prefer the sleek, slim, traditional stem.  But I've decided to keep planting both, to reflect both sides of me and my garden.  Have to keep people guessing, looking, and laughing, you know.

     Now, the most interesting experiment happened at school. We planted an onion bulb, one that was sprouting from underneath a student's home sink, and we let two classroom-grown radishes grow to the size of beets.  Onion and radishes are in full bloom, and they took second prize in the Agricultural District Fair (for schools) at Whittwood Mall.  They are in containers, and I have to say that both look very dramatic planted that way.  They'd be weeds in any other circumstance.  Hey, I look better not standing next to a rose, too!  And then there are those days and nights when everything comes together at once, and there's no stopping me.  

     All of a sudden, after letting this column sit for a couple of weeks, forming its roots, I've decided that those French tulips are just what I needed.  Thanks, Grandma!  You knew me well.