A Nod to Flora

Beltane                                                          Beltane Moon

“Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly–and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.”
–  Omar Khayyám

When we began life here in Andover, we decided we would like cut flowers in our home as often as possible, especially during the growing season.  We’ve not always cut them, but we sure have grown them.  Kate brought me two vases just a moment ago, one with fragrant lilacs and the other early purple iris and late, yellow daffodils.

To do this over the course of the growing season, that is, cut flowers for inside, requires planning for perennials that bloom throughout. (I’m not much of an annual guy, though Kate buys some each year.) Not always an easy task.  I still have some lacunae, late June and late July.  Finding fall bloomers that would survive here was a task for a while but asters and monkshod and clematis fill in with the help of the occasional fall-blooming crocus.