BULBS, ROOTS AND PLANTS MAKE GREAT
MOTHER’S DAY GIFTS
BY
ANNA MAY KINNEY
With a week of snow flurries mixed in rain showers, the early spring flowers have been
rather slow at showing their faces. They have just predicted temperatures in the high
70’s for Mother’s Day weekend; it looks like my three thousand daffodils will be
in full bloom. How appropriate, mothers and flowers do go nicely together.
Besides Valentines Day, Mother’s day ranks as one of the biggest sales days for
florists. Most of us think nothing of spending $40 or $50 dollars on a large bouquet to
show mom just how much we love her. Nothing wrong with that, but I would personally rather
have something that lasted longer.
Since placing my website online in January, I have had so many women mention how much they
would enjoy a large flower garden. With full time jobs outside the home and a family to
nurture, women do not have the free time they once had for such luxuries.
There is also the problem many of them tell me they have talking their husbands into
giving up a piece of his ‘prized’ lawn for a flowerbed.
Moms are always giving, wouldn’t it be nice if we could give them something that they
would not only enjoy for one day, but something that would bring beauty into their lives
for a couple of months EVERY year?
Almost anywhere you shop this week, you are going to find sales and for the same price you
would have spent of a bouquet of freshly cut flowers you can select quite a few items from
the vast variety of spring bulbs, roots and plants that can be placed outside this spring
and that will provide years of enjoyment.
If your not interested in a perennial garden, there are always many varieties of annuals
available. Every family member can find something in his or her price range. A young child
might select a flat of annuals for about $2 and for another $2 a plastic window box to
plant them in.
You could be creative, and purchase one or two window planters, or a large decorative
flowerpot and fill it with gifts from dad and every child. A nice pair of garden gloves
can be bought for under $5, a beautiful red, pink or white peony root that will be around
for years to come can picked on up for about $8.
If your mom or grandmother is an avid gardener and you have no cash but would like to give
something special, you could give her an IOU for ten free hours of help in the garden,
this can be split up into one-hour sessions. Early in the spring, you could please a tired
mom by helping her create a flower bed, or ready an existing one by turning over the soil,
weeding and working in compost.
If you’re a teenage son or daughter, who is handy with tools, there are a few easy to
make items you could make for mom, if you don’t have enough time right now, how about
giving her an IOU.
Archways, trellises and arbors are beautiful additions
to the garden and most styles can be made from raw cedar polls, and it is quite
inexpensive. If you’d like some ideas, feel free to give me a call, I have a few you
could take a look at, and I could help you obtain some poles for making your own.
If you’re the significant other, ask the lady in your life if she’d be
interested in having a flowerbed. Then make the big sacrifice, offer a good sunny location
of the lawn, take off the sod, and add lots of compost and black earth until it remains
raised after it has a chance to settle. A well-kept flowerbed will wind up making your
section of lawn look even better.
A friend sent me this lovely piece and being Mother’s Day, I’d like to share it
with you. This is dedicated to all great moms out there, those who have great moms and to
all future great moms;
REAL MOTHERS
Real mothers don’t eat quiche; they don’t have
time to make it.
Real mothers know that their kitchen utensils are
probably in the sandbox.
Real mothers often have sticky floors, filthy oven and
happy kids.
Real mothers know that dried play dough doesn’t
come out of shag carpets.
Real mothers don’t want to know what the vacuum
just sucked up.
Real mothers sometimes ask “why me?” and get
their answer when a little voice says “because I love you best.”
Real Mothers know that a child’s growth is not
measured by height or years or grades…..
It is marked by the progression from Mama to Mom to Mother….
A WOMAN’S BEAUTY
The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears,
the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.
The beauty of a woman must be seen from inside her eyes,
because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love reisides.
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is
reflected in her soul.
It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion
that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!
We all agree flowers are super gifts for mom on mothers day, but the best gift of all
costs nothing, tell mom ‘I Love YOU’.
The End.
|