Flower Power

Spring!   The early flaunt of  pink and  white suspended in the naked woods.  It’s greening around the dogwoods and the redbuds now, denser by the day, and color is moving to the ground -- ephemeral spring blooms -- Easter pastels, delicate and brief  -- scattered through the forest.

Prosaic suburban streets are transformed.  I adjust my driving route to get the best show.  The dense drape of wisteria high in trees at a street corner, the brave stand of tulips at the base of an oak, the exuberant mass of orange azalea tumbling down a slope with a foreground of white spirea, a sidedrop of forsythia fading.

And turn into my own driveway and look across at the profusion of azalea, a kaleidoscope of color bursting  beyond the float of dogwood, set in the  smooth emerald of freshly mown grass and weeds.  The joy springs up, swollen in my chest. Even at times of worry and uncertainty, the power of this beauty feeds the soul, lifts the spirits.   Spring – aptly named.

 We lost a giant Water Oak last July.  The space it occupied still shivers with memory but now the added light, the added rain nurtures my azaleas.  They are exuberant, proudly giving their all. 

Last month I was at the Philadelphia International Flower Show.  It is the oldest indoor flower show in the world (began in 1892) and is also the largest.   So big that, even though we were there for many hours, we still didn’t get to see everything.   

The theme was  Hawaii, Islands of Aloha.  Orchids and anthuriums and other tropical plants  in their thousands,  a 25 foot high waterfall,  a Fire Goddess dance, a glowing blue digital wave.   Crowds queued for tickets ($30) and pressed in a human wave alongside the displays, digital cameras extended from almost every arm (mine included).  

Despite the press and density of humanity the air was fragrant with floral scents, the atmosphere one of awe, almost reverence.  I looked around me at people of all ages and sizes, at families, at tattooed men, old ladies. They had spent all that money and were forced to shuffle patiently through the show,  and yet their faces were suffused with wonder and a sort of calm and joyful happiness.

And it gave me great joy and a surge of hope to think that all of these people  (270,000 this year)  were prepared to spend that much time and money in the honor of flowers!!!

Here are a few of my pics – all of floral displays. (Wish I’d also had the nerve to photograph faces of strangers being nourished by this transient living beauty.) 

a little table arrangement!

All out Hawaiian

made from petals and leaves

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.   

Francis Bacon