I love getting flowers, they definitely make a sad day happier. …thanks girls!

The promise of spring…

As someone unlikely to receive flowers for valentines day this year (and haven’t ever, that I can remember), I am always a fan of taking charge of my own life… Ergo the dianthus I bought for myself today. And yes, they’ll be around for at least two weeks.

I know most folks think carnations are trite, but they couldn’t be more wrong, the word “pink” was actually named for these cute flowers, and dianthus/pinks/carnations are mentioned in shakespeare… “the very pinck of courtesy.”

Brand new or ancient, I adore the dianthus family, they are cheap, last forever in a vase and they sell them at the grocery store for goodness sake!

Give me carnations over some long stemmed red roses with baby’s breath any day…even Valentines day.

I’ve been considering a move to Zone 7- a newly expanded possibility given this- and my garden catalogs have set me dreaming about all the plants I could grow in Zone 7.  Camellias, fabulous Wisterias, Agapanthus!  Outside!  I could plant Dahlias and not have to lift them every fall (my sister will be thrilled, as she’s had to do that on my behalf when I injured myself once, and when my husband did another time)!

Although it would be helpful to know where I am actually going to live in a year or so, it is so much fun to dream about all the possibilities.  Fabulous lilies.  Blowsy, vivid hydrangeas.  Boxwoods without the winter cover!  It will be a dream come true.

Now all I have to do is decide. But the possibilities are endless!

The new alstromeria color that I saw at Trader Joe’s is absolutely awesome: a creamy white with a green center stripe and pale yellow spots: yet another reason to love the unloved alstroemeria. And at $3.99 a bunch, I bought two and will have awesome flowers for at least two weeks!

I know that getting flowers from someone you love is wonderful.  A public declaration of their love for you. But honestly, of the 10% of guys that actually give flowers, probably only 2% are giving them for a good reason (and not as an apology). The solution to this problem?

Buy them for yourself. You are guaranteed to get nice ones, no strings attached! Even though I am poor now, I still buy flowers every time I go to the grocery store. It makes me feel civilized.

And nothing cheers up a bedside or dining room table (if I had one) like fresh flowers.

The key, to me, is getting long lasting flowers…carnations (above) or alstomeria, which will last at least two weeks.

Even when they don’t last, they are still wonderful to have around. Just like some of those flower-bearing guys. (And even those without flowers.)

I have adored Southern U.S. gardens for years- and am particularly enamored of crepe myrtles.  I love their gorgeous bark and great blooms.  I had always assumed that they should be pruned like lilacs, after bloom and sparingly.  Au contraire!

My new Southern Correspondent corrected my assumption tonight with “Nope– trim in the winter.” So y’all who have those gorgeous crepe myrtles in your yard: get out there and prune the darn things.  I’ll have to amend the post later once I figure out how you actually prune them: hard? a light trim?  I vaguely recall that you can do a full pruning- all the way back to the crown… but I have no idea why you’d ever do that: it’s the bark that makes me so covetous of the darn things!

Maybe my new gardenlessness will result in my moving to a warm place where I can grow those gorgeous crepe myrtles!  Stranger things have happened.

Even though I have lost my garden during this tumultuous fall… some things in my life are still beautiful. And blooming for the first time in years… my ladyslipper!

Res ipsa loquitor.

This year's pathetic lavender bouquet

Have I not mentioned how much I love the smell of lavender? I’m semi-obsessed. It never grows here as well as it does further south, so I end up cutting it back every year and bringing the cuttings into my office and my closets and everywhere else. I’ve been most successful in places with great drainage- like along the driveway that has that terrible fill under 1 inch of topsoil.

Terrible soil must be the crucial reason why there are so many lavender fields in France. A very good friend who was just there told me that the smell was incredible and permeated everything.

Yet another reason to head back to France!