Tuesday 5 April 2011

Tidy Grace

Alongside blossom I think tulips are the other flower that heralds spring for me.

'The spring boxes for the verandah steps have been filled with pink and white and yellow tulips. I love tulips better than any other spring flower; they are the embodiment of alert cheerfulness and tidy grace... Their faint, delicate scent is refinement itself; and is there anything in the world more charming than the sprightly way they hold up their little faces to the sun? I have heard them called bold and flaunting, but to me they seem modest grace itself, only always on the alert to enjoy life as much as they can and not afraid of looking the sun or anything else above them in the face.' Elizabeth von Arnim Elizabeth and her German Garden

tulips


What heralds spring for you?

8 comments:

  1. Daffodils first, then tulips. Although I did have to bury my face in the bouquet of freesias Mum was given on Sunday - absolutely the best smell in the world!

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  2. I love tulips! We have a "flower bed" in which nothing will grow, and we have tried everything including wildflower seeds. The tree next to it has taken over the entire space with its roots so nothing survives. Except one lone red tulip that pops up every spring! Thats how we know warmer weather has truly arrived. He isn't here yet, and I am waiting quite impatiently.

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  3. Well Freesias are my favourite flower and I would always rather be given a bunch of them than, say, roses. But heralding Spring? The sight of the little pale yellow wild primroses in the hedgerows.

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  4. My favorite part of spring is knowing I can get my hands dirty in the soil and feeling the sun on my shoulders. Hope you're having a beautiful start to spring!

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  5. Tonia - A favourite flower scent is just the best in the world. We've hyacinths at the moment.
    Hiphip - What a lovely story. Hope The Red Tulip arrives soon.
    potterjotter - Primroses in the hedgerows can just spring upon you too which makes them even more magical.
    Julie - Today is a glorious spring day. I'm looking forward to our new home and having a garden.

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  6. The first caravan being towed into our seaside town, or having to follow it along our narrow Devon roads! Seriously, spring is heralded in two ways: first, I feel brighter, definitely wanting to fling open windows, clean the house from top to bottom, eat in the garden (real food not barbecues which I dislike ... why cook meat out of doors when you have a perfectly good oven in the house?) and second: the vast carpet of pale lavender, mauve and purple crocus in the gardens of Dartington Hall, Devon ... now that really is a site for sore winter eyes.
    Margaret P

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  7. galant - oh yes feeling brighter definately heralds spring.
    Vintage Reading - encore!

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