Cut Flowers




Roses and lilies...a favorite combination

      A lot of people don’t like cut flowers. My late grandmother-Big Mama-was one of them. I didn’t learn about this until after I once sent her a floral arrangement for her birthday. Of course, being the typical grandmother, she thanked me profusely and made a big fuss over them. But my mother later told me of Big Mama’s preference to see flowers outside in their natural state. 

      I agree with her to a point. I’m not a fan of those stiff, perfectly arranged, funeral-looking concoctions. But over the past few years, grabbing a couple of bunches of flowers at the supermarket and loosely “arranging” them has become a guilty pleasure of mine. And I don’t have to feel too guilty. I figure a few cents a day is a fair price to pay for an instant pick-me-up. Maybe if I could grow one of those lush cottage gardens with a profusion of color right outside my windows, I’d be more inclined to leave flowers in the ground. But since my thumb is more brown than green and my space is limited, I derive pleasure from nature’s beauty brought inside where I can view it often and up close and personal.    

Yellow lilies, instant pick-me-up on a drizzly day

These were growing on the side
 of my house. I saw them and enjoyed
them a lot more  when
 I brought them inside.

        It might not be normal, the lift I get each morning from walking into the kitchen and seeing an explosion of color. I love watching roses or lilies or tulips slowly unfold from tight, compact buds into large and impressive blooms. Perhaps I'm overthinking it, but I find a life lesson in how mature blossoms seem willing to open up and receive more light, becoming more lovely in the process. Talk about aging gracefully. Much can be learned from a bouquet of cut flowers.

The pleasure doubles when cut flowers
remind us of love and friendship.