This enchanting scene, painted over a century ago by a gent named Ludwig Knauss, instantly leaves me feeling afflated to begin planning for planting and picking flowers, lots and lots of flowers …
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Afflated (uh-FLEY-tid): having inspiration; inspired
What flower afflated you to start dreaming of spring?
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
Lavender. Lots and lots of lavender. What a beautiful picture this is. She is a future farmgirl to be sure.
Spring crocuses and other spring bulbs always get me going. I have ” forced” some of the smaller bulbs of the antique double shaggy daffodils called ” Rip Van Winkle” that I found at my farmette. I have them in crystal wine glasses in my windows and they are really starting to shoot up now. Not much longer till the blooms I hope.
Planning my flowering vines like Hyacinth bean and various morning glories to grow on the white picket fence by my herb garden keeps me afflated right now. I am more of a vegetable gardener but the flowering herbs will keep me happy again this year and I want to add to the lemon scented herb collection for sure.
Daffodils and little purple Crocus always inspire spring in me. Although down here in Florida, it is the azaleas that usher in the change of season. Our back yard is almost a sea of pinks and white. For some reasons, the freezes last week hit the front yard but not the back and so our azaleas are coming out. They are so pretty!
Perfect timing, as I am putting sticky notes on seed catalog pages…sweet peas, sunflowers, zinnias, nasturtiums, alyssum. It’s all about color and scent. Calendula, cosmos, bachelor buttons and sweet peas are the first flowers I grew as a little kid–I still love all of them.
Outside right now are pink pussywillows, helleborus, crocus and snowdrops. Seems much too early!
Linder benzoin, a type of spice bush (that a particular swallowtail butterfly calls home) was my favorite to take cuttings from and force early. It’s bloom is not unlike witch hazel and though kinda odd, gave hope that spring was not so far off. It was at my parent’s home. I planted one three years ago, and the first year the bunnies found it a delectable winter treat. It’s not growing very fast, so no cuttings, yet.
Dandelions…. Little white puffballs that I grab, close my eyes and make a wish while I blow the seeds everywhere. Hurry Spring, please come quickly.
Tulips, tulips and more tulips. When my daughter moved to Michigan, one of the first trips we did together was to Holland, MI!!! So beautiful and all I could do was stand and stare. She kept poking me and saying, “There’s more to see Mom!” Winter here in the Northeast has been brutal this year, and I am praying that my tulips survive and bloom when Spring arrives.