Your Flowers Are Talking - What Do They Say About You?

I just finished reading this book called The Language of Flowers.  It was lent to our garden manager who passed it on to all of us gardeners and ex-gardeners.  We loved it and read it in a day or two.  It's addicting and dramatic and tugs on the heart strings (reading the summary on the back is almost enough to make you put it down because of just how cheesy it sounds, try to overcome).  It is simultaneously light and intense at the same time.  Light in the sense that the structure is simple and not so subtle.  But it deals with heartbreaking topics like homelessness, foster care, single parenthood and basic human suffering, all with parallel experiences of natural beauty.

Yellow Rose - infidelity or jealousy
(this is a recurring image in the book)

              We first meet the central character, Victoria Jones, as she is leaving her final group home in San Francisco at the age of 18.  We quickly learn that she has anger and violence issues and has had no easy time since birth when her mother abandoned her.  The story follows her as she tries to figure out what to do with this new life, while having no high school diploma, no family, a case worker she evades when possible, and her only "skill" is a love of flowers, a scientific understanding of their growth and a thorough understanding of the ancient "language of flowers."  This relationship with flowers adds a beautiful tone to the novel as they often serve as a mode of communication or at least a time of respite from a world she cannot always handle.
              The novel is told in alternating chapters of present time and past episodes of her life and slowly brings them closer together to explain how she learned about flowers and what went to so wrong at a time in her life when she almost had a home.  There is a love interest too and he is related to her past, which makes it all the more juicy and ripe as an opportunity to explore reconciliation.  While she struggles to find her place in a world that has been hostile, she is lucky enough to encounter several supportive figures who love her in a way she was never able to love herself.  Great read!
              Seeing that I live next to a most amazing garden myself, I thought I would explore what our flowers say.  The book comes with an appendix of a flower dictionary.  I took to the garden with my notebook and a camera and here's what I found.

Iris - Message & Foxglove - Insincerity

Sweet Pea- Delicate pleasures

Peony - Anger

Camellia - My destiny is in your hands

Calalilly - Modesty

Poppy - Extravagance

This bouquet graces one of our altars.  Now of course, just because this language of flowers exists doesn't mean a flower or bouquet can't be appreciated simply for its magnificence.  This bouquet is beautiful and also could mean something very particular.  Orange roses mean "fascination," Dianthus (the red flower) means "make haste," and the Love-in-the-mist (blue flower) means "perplexity."  So perhaps if you had a flirtation going on with someone but the signs were confusing and you didn't know where it was going, this bouquet could say "I am fascinated and perplexed so please tell me your intentions." Or, "you're giving me mixed signals so 'shit or get off the pot'!"

Summer is Here!

Dazzling temperatures and sunny skies fill the valley this week.  Mid April starts the "summer" or "growing" season here at Green Gulch.  Farm and garden apprentices arrive, flowers start to bloom, practice periods are over, planting, harvesting, and visitors abound.  The general feeling is to give ourselves over to the natural schedule provided by longer days of sunlight, warmer temps that encourage action, and the overall excitement we feel living in one of the most beautiful places ever!  See the "selfy" to the right depicting me, my new sunglasses, and the Green Gulch private pool.

 The weather this week has been amazing, in the 70s all day.  Several swims and lovely evening walks to the other watering hole, The Pelican Inn.  Of course, like last year, we simultaneously enjoy the warm beauty and worry about the lack of rain (it's probably done for the season and we got about 2-3 inches this year.)  Not much, but the iris below sticks out her tongue and says "I'll be ok."  

So as the high season mounts, I work to find a balance between rest and play.  It's funny how quick I can forget or forsake the early mornings I pull 4-5 days a week.  Yes, tonight will be my third night at the Pelican in a week and a half, yes I will be going to Slide Ranch to see music Monday night, the Muir Beach Community Center for a GGF/Slide Ranch mixer and CSA signup Friday, my Grandma's 93 (94?) birthday at the Russian River the day after.  I really could fill every day with something fun but every soul needs a little quiet time too.  We'll see how it goes.
Come visit this summer!