SPRING
All seasons are miraculous but spring has an air of magic unparalleled by any of them. It is the promise of rebirth as the first snowdrop pushes its head through the frozen earth and greets the sun.
The cycles of nature have restarted and color and perfume is promised to the busy gardener making her plans for the year to come.
First to bloom in the greenhouse are the anemones, even before the narcissus and tulips bloom outside. They are planted in the fall and grow foliage before the cold of winter sets in.
The first flowers to appear are little round heads inconspicuously bowed to the ground. But as soon as their colorful petals appear they become tall and proud and all the promise of the entire colorwheel of summer manifests in them.
Anemone should be cut regularly, as they are cut and come again flowers. They become taller and stronger with each harvest, until the heat of summer slows them down.
Next come the proud individualists, the tulips. Most of them offer a single bloom per bulb, which rises among the crunchy strong leaves, aware of its magnificence and unrepeatability.
Their long and rich history has seen these bulbs become, from the national flower of Turkey, the food of war- impoverished Europeans, only to rise again as the motor of the holland flower industry, a single bulb commanding as much as the price of a house.
Tulips come in an unbelievable variety of shapes and sizes, from swordlike petals to peony shaped round heads, some of them as scented as a summer rose.
Princess Irene 
Monsella 
Fancy Frills
My personal favorites are the parrot tulips with their huge, heavy, wavy heads almost turning their petals outwards as they greet the sun and closing entirely once it sets, only to perform the same ritual in the days to come. Tulips are excellent cut flowers, they last up to 14 days in the vase, without any plant food.
Texas Flame 
Roccoco 
Texas Gold
The end of spring is simultaneously marked by Alliums, Nigella and Peonies.
Alliums, whether tall and sizeable as the Gigantem types, or small and coquettish, as the Mollys, are all lovely spring flowers, offering pops of colour in any spring bouquet.
Nigella, the chosen symbol of CountyBlooms gardens, are resilient cool flowers, which sprout in the fall. Their little black seeds seem so fragile and promise so little, yet once established, Nigella will self seed and continue blooming in the garden for years to come.
Its blue and white ethereal blooms seem otherworldly and even after the bloom is gone, the seedpods are so fantastically colorful and striking that they can easily become the focus of any bouquet.
Peonies mark the end of spring, as the first summer heatwave opens the last of them. We all know the classic red, pink and whites from our grandmother’s garden, but the varieties available today are almost unbelievable.
They range from white to cream to yellow, orange and deep purple, my personal favorites including PrinessBride, Sarah Berhardt, Coral Charm and Bowl of Beauty.
Their sweet scent gives notice of the impending summer. They hold a special meaning in my heart as they symbolise both an end and a beginning all wrapped up in a scented bouquet.
