Dreaming of Spring (Flowers)
From the desk of: Carrie Dirats
Hello there! I don’t know about you, but late January and early February are, for me, a time to dream about spring. One productive and non-maudlin way I do that is to plan and order plants for my garden. Most winters that planning winds up being vegetable focussed. However, this year seems like a good one to revisit the ol’ flower borders. It’s been several years since the last major floral refresh, and it is definitely time to up my game! Here are three fantastic cutting flowers to think about growing this year…
THE PEONY:
Symbolic Meaning: Depending on the color or variety, peonies represent romance, compassion, good luck, prosperity, happy marriage, and even bashfulness.
Peonies are gorgeous in centerpieces & bouquets, or just thrown in a vase! The large flowers can fill up a lot of space in an arrangement, just a few can create an instant bouquet when tied up with a ribbon. I love the visual interest they add to an arrangement in all stages from tight ball-like bud through fully developed blossom. While best known as a white or pink flower (shades from palest baby blush all the way through to an almost black burgundy), peonies are also available in shades of lavender and yellow.
Growing Information: These perennial herbaceous plants grow well in USDA growing zones 3-8 and will return year after year in your garden, and their greenery has kind of a tropical, funky look. Click HERE to find your growing zone. Peonies only bloom for about 1 week each year. However, there are storage methods that can extend their usage as a cut flower for an additional couple of weeks. Peony plants WILL harbor ants….To remove ants from cut blossoms:
Cut the peonies when they are in the squishy just-about-to-open bud stage, before the petals unfurl. If there are ants on the buds, wipe them or shake them off. Then put the peonies in water, and let them bloom inside.
OR
For full blown blooms, before taking peony flowers into your house, you can turn the blossoms upside-down in a bucket of water to get the ants off.
THE TUBEROSE:
Symbolic Meaning: In the Victorian Language of Flowers, tuberoses symbolize “dangerous pleasures”….steamy :) While, in past centuries, their strong scent led to their use at funerals tuberoses are now commonly used in hawaiian bridal leis and for weddings in cultures around the world.
Tuberose flowers are made up of up to 50 florets and form in pairs on top of 2-3’ tall stalks. Tuberoses grow in shades of white, cream, pastel pink, purple, and yellow. They can be used as full flowers, or as individual florets for smaller applications like boutonnieres. Their heavenly scent is best in small doses, and you want to be careful about mixing it with other highly scented materials.
Growing Information: This is my gardening challenge for the year. These night-blooming cousins of the agave plant originate in Mexico and are, really, a very warm-climate flower (USDA planting zones 8-10). I tried growing them about 15 years ago but didn’t manage the timing correctly. I’ve proven to be terrible at remembering to “lift” tender garden-planted bulbs in the fall and storing them properly indoors until spring. Other Massachusetts gardeners report success with keeping tuberoses in decorative flowerpots outside in summer and simply bringing the pots inside for storage in a cool basement over winter. I can probably just about manage that scheduling…and the scent of the flowers will be more than worth the storage space!
THE HELLEBORE (LENTEN ROSE):
Symbolic Meaning: If sent by a suitor to their intended it can mean “relieve my anxiety”, otherwise it can represent scandal and calumny. Let’s just skip that part, shall we?!
Growing Information: Hellebores grow happily in USDA zones 4-9 and are tolerant of partial shade as well as full sun. These perennial beauties have low ground-hugging evergreen leaves, bloom from earliest spring through the fall in partly shady locations; and fill out into nice clumps as the years go by. However, they are MUCH more polite than many other garden flowers (including their anemone cousins, which have self-seeded all over my front perennial beds) and stay put where you plant them. I currently have two varieties in my front border. One is a stark white double blossom and the other is a greenish ivory single blossom painted with rose along the back side. I’m thinking of adding a burgundy variety somewhere else in my yard, just for a little something different. What do you think of this one?
It’s important to note that all of these plants, like many other flower garden favorites, range from mildly irritating to extremely toxic when consumed. This is a good thing if you have trouble with deer and rabbits, which tend to leave them alone. This can be a bad thing if you have a dog who is hungrier than he is smart, or extremely experimental young children.
Hope I’ve given you something to dream about during all of the snow and sleet….and hope you’ll join me in growing a cutting garden this spring!