A few of the flower seed packets I have stashed away for the upcoming gardening season.
WHEN MY FRIEND MANDY offered me a pick of flower seed packets recently, I snatched up the cosmos. Next to zinnias, they are my favorite flower to grow from seed.
The simple sight of photographed blooms on a seed package lifted my spirits on a night when snow was falling. Again.
It has been an incredibly long winter here in Minnesota with more snow than I can recall in years. Thus, the possibility of spring seems as unlikely as state high school basketball tournaments without a blizzard.
But for now, a gardener can dream of cupping tiny seeds in her palm and scattering them upon soil that holds the promise of summer. She can dream of snipping stems, of gathering colorful blooms into beautiful, bountiful bouquets.
I WROTE THIS POST 10 days ago and simply didn’t get around to publishing it until today, the first day of spring. This morning, while in church, I heard the boom of thunder. It is raining here, with a brisk wind.
Snow mountains are melting. Wide swatches of muddied grass lie exposed to the elements, a welcome sight after this long and weary winter. But then again, snow is forecast for later this week, as tips of tulip plants push through the soil. This is Minnesota, after all, and we are never quite certain when spring will officially arrive. We mark the season by the arrival of warmth and bared grass and emerging flowers, not by a day on the calendar.
A bouquet of wildflowers plucked from a public garden (not by me) in Fulda, Minnesota, last summer.
Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that spring will ever come again, but it does. It always does. Flowers will be blooming in no time!
The fact that my tulips are poking through the soil and that it’s raining today, not snowing, give me hope.
The tulips are poking through the ground in Rochester, too! Spring is here. I also saw 2 earthworms crawling across the sidewalk this afternoon in the rain. My 9 year old son was so excited on Friday. He came running into the house shouting, “Mom, Mom, I just saw a robin”! I can’t wait to go morell mushroom hunting in about 6 weeks…..
Happy Spring.
Katie
Don’t you simply love the enthusiasm children have for the simplest things in life, like the first robin of spring? Thanks so much for sharing this small joy.
Any chance you would reveal the location of those mushrooms? I didn’t think so. Happy hunting and happy spring to you, too, Katie!
My iris are popping up here in Montana. Roy has been pouring over seed catalogs like they contain the cure for cancer. He has been riveted by them. I hope that storm that is supposed to hit Duluth misses you guys.
I am so jealous. I can’t wait for the spring flowers to pop here in Minnesota. But I expect it will be awhile.
Doesn’t look like the snow will miss us. We’re supposed to get several inches here in the southern part of the state, last I heard.