I wanted to sleep and wake up on February 18. No one shrinks from Valentine’s Day like I do. It is not because I abhor sentimentality. I have a deep fondness for that which makes you fleet and float and flitty-flee and fly. I can fritter away my time reading Neruda and Rumi, or watching The Love Affair for the nth time. I adore fated meetings that lead to soft wet kisses on a woman’s back. Dark chocolate and scarlet red roses, I am that kind of girl. But if you please, not on Valentine’s Day! It’s February 6 today and I have been cursing the season. For the past four years, I have been loathing every rose, every bear, and every heart balloon bellowing “Happy Valentine’s Day!” Well, not today. Writing this piece, I am illumined by the splendor of what I do. We grow flowers, the lucky kind that gets picked to bear love and heartache, joy and pain, every yearning, and a lot of times, carry tears of regret and hope. There is something magical about what I do. I carry sentiments. I get to see every bold and brazen guy in town and all over the world, get loopy over the Day of Hearts. And oh, if there was one thing I am fond of, it’s watching cool dudes sheepishly choose a flower arrangement to symbolize devotion and then painfully declare love on a piece of paper. No matter how hard and callous our world has become, I have a daily, hourly, by the minute proof of love in all its guises: There’s the husband who writes: “I fall in love with you everyday;” Casanovas who cunningly order identical bouquets of flowers bearing the same love notes to three different girls; doting sons who buy two bouquets every year for their two great loves: mother and wife; a horde of faraway husbands and lovers blowing their kisses in the wind; besotted lovers onto a new romance; smitten couples who are yet to meet; my list is as boundless as the love that overflows. And oh, the prose and poetry that love can inspire. Lest not forget a few brilliant lines. Message for the bejeweled wife of an affluent executive who obliged his driver to buy his wife’s prized flowers: “Happy ValentiMes!” At least, he left out “Ma’am.” Still, and clichéd and soppy as it may read, whether it’s a husband who knows his lines, a Casanova who knows even better, or even when all the grammar falls apart, every man falls in love and tells it so. They touch the very same virtue and vice that launched a thousand ships, wrote “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,” painted Mona Lisa and played Canon in D. Every human being, whether he’s all muscle and brute, at one time or another, will be captivated by love. And one day I’ll find him at our flower shop. And it’s Valentine’s season again. And how I would want to wake up on February 18 when all their sentiments have already been sent and I can once again be enamored by love.
Posts Tagged ‘Roses’
9 Feb
Of Men and Roses
1 Jul
Holding on to your Rose Romance
Our farm prides itself with perfect blossoms, roses with strong stems, buds that open slowly, as if in a slow dance, elegant petals like velvet, and sweet smells that waft, giving you the scent of all things beautiful! We harvest an average of 6000 stems of flowers a day, including elegant roses. We have colors for your every whim and fancy, deep reds and burgundy, peaches and sweet pinks, two-tones with colors that swirl, angelic whites and misty greens, sunny yellows and tangy oranges. You can see a sampling of these at http://www.myflowerdepot.com
Whatever your rose preference, enjoy your blooms even longer with these tips for cutting roses.
10 Tips for Cutting and Displaying Roses
- Cut roses in after 3 in the afternoon, when they are highest in food reserves.
- Chooses rose buds that have already begun to open, but that are no more than 1/3 to ½ fully open.
- Always use clean, sharp pruners to prevent damaging the rose canes and spreading disease.
- Leave at least 3 leaves on the stem, to feed the plant.
- Remove all leaves that would be below the water line.
- Get your roses into water as soon as possible. Bring a bucket of water with you when you cut. If you cut the roses outside without water, re-cut the stems indoors either underwater or immediately plunge them into water
- Use either a floral preservative or add a splash of a lemon soda or even a squeeze of lemon and a tablespoon of sugar to the water in the vase.
- Change the water whenever it starts to get dirty.
- Let your cut roses have a few hours in a cool spot out of direct sunshine before you display them. This conditioning extends their vase life.
- If your roses seem to be wilting, water is not able to flow through the stem. Re-cut the stem bottoms and submerge them in very warm, (not so hot you can’t touch it) water and let them sit for about an hour before replacing them in the vase.
Our Farm by Earth Flora Inc. 