Monday, April 11, 2011

Reasons to Love a Pansy

The sweet smell of pansies filled my car this weekend as I brought home the first new plants for my garden! Though I'm usually one of those gardeners to give annual bedding plants the cold shoulder, I make an exception for pansies. When I see them at the nursery I remember walking past them as a little girl in the cool, damp spring of North Vancouver. Pansies are often mistaken for being a most delicate, fair weather flower, but this is far from the truth. Unpredictable weather will make even the greatest gardeners antsy, but pansies withstand the whole spectrum of frost, warm snaps, prolonged rain showers, even snow that early spring brings. After they've given me many weeks of steadfast color and the summer heat is coming on, I'll use the edible  petals to liven up my salad. I succumbed to them again this year and planted a colorful patch underneath the dogwood tree next to the sidewalk. As I was planting, I heard a gasp behind me. It was the little girl from upstairs walking by. Though English is her second language, she managed to remark "Wonderful!" at the flowers. Another pansy lover! And even more pansy fans, members of the Natick Garden Club, decorated downtown Natick with baskets of the flowers this weekend. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

If there's one thing better than visiting gardens, it's talking about them. . .thanks for joining the conversation!