A Breath of Spring
A heartfelt thank you to those of you who sent cards and emails to cheer me out of my winter blahs a couple weeks ago. I especially want to thank my very good friend, Juliet, for the “sunshine from Minnesota” bouquet she sent.
A heartfelt thank you to those of you who sent cards and emails to cheer me out of my winter blahs a couple weeks ago. I especially want to thank my very good friend, Juliet, for the “sunshine from Minnesota” bouquet she sent.
Two weeks ago we were experiencing a frigidly cold spell with single digit temperatures. One day that week I had been out most of the day and when I came home there was a box propped up by my garage door. On it was 1-800-FLOWERS and I was quite confused as to why I would be getting flowers when it wasn’t my birthday, or Valentine’s Day (yet), or any other special occasion I could think of. I took the box in and opened a bouquet of dead flowers. I don’t know how long UPS left it outside, but the poor flowers had frozen.
So I called 1-800-FLOWERS and explained what had happened. They were most solicitous and offered to send another bouquet the next day. No, I said, no one will be here, send them on Wednesday. Of course, they could do that, no problem. I got home on Tuesday and sure enough, there sat another box of flowers in the snow.
Evidently UPS had made their delivery only a little while before the box was found, and I now have a beautiful arrangement of alstroemeria, or Peruvian lilies as they are sometimes called. As unlikely as it seemed, I put the first dead-looking bunch in water and several of those “came back to life,” so I have a large vase and a small vase of springtime. Thank you my friend, it was just what I needed.
I did manage to renew my spirit a bit more with a trip to the Botanical Gardens in Buffalo with my very Significant Other on Valentine’s weekend. We were regulars at the Como Conservatory in St. Paul, but this was our first visit to the Buffalo gardens. What a breath of fresh air!
From the tropical rainforest to the desert cacti, from the Florida Everglades to a Victorian ivy garden, the Botanical Gardens have it all. There is a room devoted to orchids, but they adorn almost every room in some way. As I was strolling along I got a whiff of chocolate in the air and I thought how quaint for Valentine’s weekend, they’ve got chocolate somewhere. Turns out, the aroma was coming from the chocolate orchid (oncidium sharry baby). Oh what a sensory delight! If they weren’t so difficult to grow I’d have a house full of those luscious calorie free blossoms.
Finding topiaries of dinosaurs and alligators in several rooms was a delightful surprise, but you must look closely since their camouflage is close to perfect. The amaryllis show is just winding up, with only this weekend to go, and sadly many of those tall stately flowers were wilting or stalks had fallen over from the sheer weight of the multiple flowers it held.
The gardens are only an hour or so away, so next time I get into a winter funk, I’ll pack up and drive to the tropics; unless of course the roads are impassable with ice and snow and blowing wind. Ah, winter, gotta love it. Think Spring everybody.
So I called 1-800-FLOWERS and explained what had happened. They were most solicitous and offered to send another bouquet the next day. No, I said, no one will be here, send them on Wednesday. Of course, they could do that, no problem. I got home on Tuesday and sure enough, there sat another box of flowers in the snow.
Evidently UPS had made their delivery only a little while before the box was found, and I now have a beautiful arrangement of alstroemeria, or Peruvian lilies as they are sometimes called. As unlikely as it seemed, I put the first dead-looking bunch in water and several of those “came back to life,” so I have a large vase and a small vase of springtime. Thank you my friend, it was just what I needed.
I did manage to renew my spirit a bit more with a trip to the Botanical Gardens in Buffalo with my very Significant Other on Valentine’s weekend. We were regulars at the Como Conservatory in St. Paul, but this was our first visit to the Buffalo gardens. What a breath of fresh air!
From the tropical rainforest to the desert cacti, from the Florida Everglades to a Victorian ivy garden, the Botanical Gardens have it all. There is a room devoted to orchids, but they adorn almost every room in some way. As I was strolling along I got a whiff of chocolate in the air and I thought how quaint for Valentine’s weekend, they’ve got chocolate somewhere. Turns out, the aroma was coming from the chocolate orchid (oncidium sharry baby). Oh what a sensory delight! If they weren’t so difficult to grow I’d have a house full of those luscious calorie free blossoms.
Finding topiaries of dinosaurs and alligators in several rooms was a delightful surprise, but you must look closely since their camouflage is close to perfect. The amaryllis show is just winding up, with only this weekend to go, and sadly many of those tall stately flowers were wilting or stalks had fallen over from the sheer weight of the multiple flowers it held.
The gardens are only an hour or so away, so next time I get into a winter funk, I’ll pack up and drive to the tropics; unless of course the roads are impassable with ice and snow and blowing wind. Ah, winter, gotta love it. Think Spring everybody.
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