Relieved

As Valentine’s Day approaches I’m again reminded of how glad I am to no longer be working in a flower shop! Do you wonder why flower prices are so much higher for Valentine’s Day? Here’s the primary answer, increased overhead. The growers spend many nights in the greenhouses to make sure their roses are perfect, that the electricity doesn’t go out and turn them into rosecicles or that no other business-killing disaster occurs. Such a huge volume of hothouse flowers additionally takes a greater amount of fuel to keep them warm.

Then comes the extra overtime hours paid to employees, though floral industry employees make very little—I started at $3.50 an hour! We would be on our feet all day and into the night for days. One shop always had a line of flower-buying men trailing out the door and into the parking lot. The shop owner always hired a deputy for traffic direction and set up a TV with ski videos to keep the guys occupied while they waited.

Yes, some of it is marketing hype but most florists are local small businesses (though they’re being overwhelmed by the more ordinary supermarket floral departments) and aren’t we always being urged to support such businesses? Valentine’s Day is one of the make-or-break days in the business.

Nevertheless, I’m over celebrating Valentine’s Day. I’ve concluded that it puts unfair pressure on men to spend more money on gifts when they already have Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries and possibly Mother’s Day to keep up with. A friend once remarked regarding Mother’s Day that she’d rather be treated right all year than get a corsage on Mother’s Day.

But if you still want to buy your lady some flowers for Valentine’s Day, the other women I worked with in flower shops and I always agreed that we would prefer a bouquet of mixed flowers over the routine red roses as more creative. But if your lady is a traditionalist you’d better stick with long stem red roses. See what I mean? It’s too demanding.

What’s in Your Garden?

Yesterday at church, an elder’s sermon asked the question, “What’s in your garden?” What kinds of thoughts do you plant in the garden of your life; what kinds of TV programs are planted there? Are they the kind that bear good and wholesome fruit or are they more closely related to thorns?

Botanically, thorns are stems that have gone awry through mutation; they were originally created to be stems or branches bearing leaves and flowers but became instead, deadly barbs. Even beautifully flowering plants such as bougainvillea, roses and cacti can have ferocious thorns and must be handled carefully.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, the land became cursed and would no longer produce good things without a lot of hard work—along with “thorns and thistles” (Genesis 3:17-18). The ransom of the earth from the curse brought on by human sin is tied to the ransom of humans by Jesus’ death and resurrection (Romans 8:19-23). Perhaps then, it’s no coincidence that Jesus wore a crown of thorns when he died on the cross.

The above picture is my garden as it was last May— these days, weather and migration to the indoor garden have left it looking sparse. However, I found this morning that a miniature orange zinnia has bloomed. With temperatures in the 60’s and 70’s, spring just may return—and if not, I have some ideas…

Saving Seeds

The hyacinth bean vine and the four o’clocks have produced mature seeds for the harvesting. They can be planted next year for a new crop; until then, they, and the remaining ones can be saved for several years in a cool, dry place. Glassine envelopes are often recommended but I’ve noticed that many seed companies are packaging their seeds in resealable foil packs so I’m saving foil-lined tea bag packages. I once met the guy who invented foil-lined packaging—thanks Mr. B!

Saving seeds of old varieties has become an important endeavor as hybrids are quickly replacing them. Hybrids can only be grown from patented seeds that you buy from the grower. While hybrids will often produce seeds in your home garden and even grow, the plant will revert to one of its parents rather than the beautiful hybrid that you bought. Sometimes that’s good but it’s not usually what you’re looking for. When we lived in New England, we learned what a problem this is for farmers. They can no longer save seed from their harvest to plant for next year’s crop—they have to spend a lot of money to buy more seed.

I enjoy hybrid flowers but many hybrid flowers and vegetables are “designed” for a particular market such as tough-skinned tomatoes that can withstand long-distance trucking and a long shelf-life in stores, but are fairly tasteless—that’s why home-grown tomatoes taste so much better. While roses aren’t generally grown from seed, they’re an illustration of contrast between the old varieties and those grown “for the market”. The voluptuous old-fashioned “cabbage roses” with their full-blown petals and heady fragrance are unmatched in their style of beauty but they could never stand up to the rigors of the floral industry. The closely-wrapped petals and long, sturdy stems of the American Beauty–type rose are better suited to last for their trip from the greenhouse to the wholesaler to the florist to your home but lack much fragrance (you can make them last longer still by changing their water every day and recutting the stems at an angle). It’s a trade-off but our planet would suffer loss if the only plants cultivated were those of market convenience.

Besides, it’s fun to share seed with other gardeners. My friend R. gave me hyacinth bean vine seeds from her garden.