Welcome 2018! Finally on our way towards more daylight hours, I am about to burst with longing for the garden, flowers, the smell of soil and all the outdoor time. I find the winter darkness becoming harder and harder to cope with and the missing of opportunity to pop out and get a boost from the garden gets bigger every winter. It has an undisputed physical and mental effect to not have the possibility to touch flowers, dig in the soil, get warm through raking or to water a newly planted rosebush. To see the summer sun lower itself upon dahlias or to experience the growing from one day to the next in the middle of May. Up till then one just has to find other ways to connect with the green and the growing. In the greenhouse the earliest bulbs have started to surface in their pots. Crocus, botanical tulips and hyacinths have got green tips protruding and I check on them now and again with hope. Protected with nets against mice, all potted plants have actually been without attack. (see post regarding that HERE) Inside it smells divinely of hyacinths and the first spring tulips recently acquired. I could not resist Verona the other day.
With some white Ranunculus and a couple of Amaryllis on sale (which I immediately cut off from the bulbs so as to be able to use in a bouquet) it became a nice winter-spring white combination.
A few extra twigs with greenery, to flesh it out. Also, tulip buds are amazing.
But also in full bloom. This is the same bouquet that I cut shorter after a few days and changed its vase. Verona is probably the most beautiful tulip I know and when in full bloom become almost like peonies. It also smells nice and lasts a long time.
Besides bouquets of tulips and budding bulbs in the greenhouse I drive away the winter darkness by ordering dahlias and seeds, plan and dream of what’s to come. It is after all, nice to have plenty of time to put aside for that. 🙂