OH, HOW BEAUTIFUL the flowers that gardeners tend. Petals flash color, painting the landscape in bold and delicate hues. Flowers dip and bend in the wind like silent writers penning poetry. Flowers inspire, bring joy, carry love stories and memories.
Flowers have always been a part of my life. From my paternal grandma’s unruly flowerbeds to my mom’s rows of colorful zinnias in the vegetable garden to my own flowers growing in a chaotic mess, I’ve delighted in blooms.
I especially appreciate the local public flower gardens that grace my community. From Central Park to the Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour to the Rice County Master Gardeners Teaching Gardens and beyond, there are plenty of flowers and plants in Faribault to fill my spirit with summer joy.
Right now, the lilies are in full bloom. They appear a sturdy lot to me, a lesson in botany with stamens and pistils and all those parts I once learned in a long ago science class. Now I don’t care much about that, just the beauty my eyes take in as I wander among the flowers.
I’m thankful for the volunteers who plant, weed and care for flower gardens created out of a love of gardening and out of a desire to beautify a community. It takes time, effort, commitment, and that does not go unnoticed by me.
Life is full of opportunities to brighten this world. Flowers are one way. I watched the other day from my living room window as a young boy picked a daisy from an errant patch growing in the boulevard by my house. Then his mom plucked one, too, tucking a single stem into the front of her tank top. I didn’t care that they picked the daisies. I could see how happy it made them.
The daisy, such a simple flower, blooming profusely in the grass next to a busy street. Bent by the wind and rain, as if bowing to the earth. The daisy has always been a sunny favorite of mine. Daisies were woven into my bridal bouquet, my bridesmaids’ baskets of flowers and corsages on my wedding day 42 years ago. Flowers hold love stories, memories.
I expect, if pressed, anyone could share a flower story. Stories of love and loss, celebration and sorrow, gratitude and healing. Flowers hold stories as much as they write them. Creativity thrives in their bold and delicate hues, in the way they grow and flourish and fade. In the way they stand or bend in the wind, like silent writers penning poetry.
© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
these are lovely and your words read like an ode to flowers and how they impact us. it’s impossible not to wax poetic when describing them.
Thank you, Beth. Continue to enjoy the flowers in your community and beyond.
My favorite lines of your posting today below. I guess I hadn’t stopped to think about flowers holding stories of which they certainly do marking celebrations as well as remberances for people.
“Stories of love and loss, celebration and sorrow, gratitude and healing. Flowers hold stories as much as they write them. Creativity thrives in their bold and delicate hues, in the way they grow and flourish and fade. In the way they stand or bend in the wind, like silent writers penning poetry.”
Thank you, Sue. I appreciate that you appreciate my writing, specifically citing the lines that resonate with you.
I loved the thought of flowers telling a story too, and the same paragraph mentioned above.
Flowers are amazing…so many and so diverse…so colorful and so cheery.
Yours are beautiful. Your lilac bush for sure tells a story.
Gorgeous!
Thank you! Enjoy the flowers wherever you live.
Nothing better than green spaces and love when they are tended and pop with a riot of colors! We have many creatures that call our yard home as well as a place to rest, nest, drink, and eat. It just makes me happy seeing the green, the pops of color, the various fauna and flora, etc. 🙂 In a way it becomes a mindfulness sanctuary for the whole being to wander and explore and engage your senses. Happy Day – Enjoy
I know how much you appreciate nature and the outdoors. Your insightful comments always add a different perspective. Today I was in Kenyon smelling and photographing the roses, among other things.
Right there with you in smelling the flora – the plumerias and magnolias have been in bloom and ahhhhhh! I should take a video of our backyard since I think we have at least 30 or more dragonflies in our yard. Their colors are green to blue to red to orange. I was kayaking recently and must have had 15 to 20 dragonflies on me – guess they like me – ha!
That is a whole lot of dragonflies. What fun to see them up close and in such an assortment of hues.
These are beautiful. I’ve always loved astilbe, though for years I thought people had ‘a stilbe’ plant. When the blooms start bursting forth is the best part of spring and summer.
They are a beautiful flower, aren’t they? Feathery, fanciful, the stuff of wishes.
Love this line you wrote, it is the truth: “Life is full of opportunities to brighten this world.” ❤️
It surely is. We either make those opportunities or we seize them.
I’ll give a shout out to astilbe as well. My youth is filled with lilacs, hedges of them. My daughter has moved to the land of cactus, says it’s not quite the same as “planting, tending and blooming season”, of anything pretty. Getting your hands dirty! Lovely photos! (the flooding is awful, still have people in Waterville too).
Yes, amidst all the flooding stories and photos, I felt the need to write about something beautiful, like these flowers. I hope your Waterville family is managing OK. So much loss there.