“How Long Does It Flower?”
“How long does it flower?” I hear this question over and over, especially in the springtime when many plants are in glorious bloom. “A few weeks,” I reply, and the customers lose interest immediately. “Is that all?” they say.
“But look at the foliage,” I tell them, rushing to the plant’s defense. I point to a peony’s lovely-shaped leaves. “This plants stays lush and green until mid-fall.”
“Then what?”
“Then it goes into dormancy.”
“It dies?”
“No, it turns brown, but it comes back very early each spring.”
The customers shake their heads. “Oh no. I need something that stays green all year.”
“Well, you could plant azaleas or rhododendrons, or camellias.”
“Do they flower?”
“Absolutely.”
“How long?”
Basically, people are looking for eternal youth: a plant that stays beautiful forever. Mother Nature knocks herself out to give us breathtaking blooms, and we are not happy. Will we ever be? Will we ever look at the world, at ourselves, and see the hidden value?
Even more miraculous is a plant’s ability to come back from dormancy, to flower year after year. This is what our green world offers us: a fresh chance each spring to put things in perspective and be thankful for what is. What a gift.
Jean Ryan 