Flowers, and the Full Moon is on Saturday

My husband is a plant man. Not formally trained, more like he’s had on-the-job-training. I did not know this when we courted. This was a character bonus that emerged after we were married and finding our way career-wise. He worked for a couple years in-town at a landscape re-wholesaler and learned a lot.

We have lived in a few houses since then and few weekends go by in which he's not outside doing something in the yard or buying something for the yard. You know how it feels to score some real good retail finds for us ladies? You know when you bring home all this loot and can’t wait to tell whoever you can how much you got on sale or got the last one, or found the perfect match? He's the same way with plants. In our last house there was one Pikes nursery in our town and he'd come home all elated with the incredible bargain prices he'd pay for a clematis, or buckeye or viburnum. The nursery didn't think they were thriving so they'd be found on the equivalent of a clearance rack or the "scratch and dent" pile. But he didn't always show me his purchases.

You know how sometimes when you come home after shopping you do not exactly unload your vehicle until later….such as when your husband is not home so that you can put away your new clothes and new shoes in your closet in private? He is the same way, except with plants. If I’m outside when he gets home he can’t hide them from me too long. But many times I have seen him hide them around the corner of the house very quickly (so I will not ask questions like how much did it cost).

Oh, he is not a procrastinator--if I'm not there when he gets home he has been known to get those plants in the ground immediately and then I may notice them weeks later. When the boys were younger he’d take them with him on these errands. If I was home when they’d return, he’d train them to tell me that they’d been shopping for me. They’d say, “Look at the flowers Daddy bought you”. (that was his back-up plan to justify the new flora or fauna).

My man is a doer, and not a mushy, sweet-talker. He can write these things though. A few times a year. He's written in many a card after our 20+ years of marriage, that he may not buy me flowers often but he will keep flowers in the yard. And it is timely too because our wedding anniversary is in April, when the first rose will bloom. And by Mother’s Day there are many other kinds of flowers starting to bloom. In in birthday June I clip the gardenias and bring them in the house and to work.

I like that the month of May’s full moon is called the Flower Moon.
It seems very apropos.
Have a beautiful Mother’s Day.