Sunday, May 13, 2007

Mum's the Word

My mother forbade it when I asked for a picture to scan in. She's worse than I am when it comes to taking pictures and having them seen. Pity--she's a cute little thing. I adore my mama--she's one of my favorite people and I don't deserve her. She shlepped my butt around to tons of rehearsals and violin lessons as a kid--dutifully finding something to do with her time while I was busy, always there to pick me up when I was done. She sat through so many bad concerts, recitals and performances, I feel she deserves retroactive hazard pay. But this year she's getting cookies and plants.

I'd wanted to find a pink butterfly bush for her for M-Day, but none of the nurseries or garden centers I went to had them--she's admired a neighbor's for some time so I thought that'd be the perfect thing. So, I had to improvise. I ended up buying a bunch of bulbs for her favorite flowers--stargazer daylilies, pink vermeer daylilies, and a bunch of gladiolias. They're interred and hopefully she'll be able to enjoy them shortly. I'd wanted to get her something already blooming but nothing I saw was appealing. She loves callas and dahlias--and they're readily available in stores right now, but a pain in terms of maintenance. Here in temperate zone 5A they have to be dug up every fall and stored, then replanted come spring. Just not worth it.

A lot of the seeds sown last weekend have popped up--I have no idea what they are (I didn't have my little map handy) but I'm hoping that more of their little brothers burst up and fill in the space. No clue how many bulbs I planted today. I tried to transplant some sweet peas for my mom--I encountered one of the largest tap roots in my life. It broke the shovel handle.

A good day really--beautiful outside, temperate and warm.