Recipe for Spring

My calendar says that spring started this last week, but if I look in my front yard, the winter snow is still there.  The tulips and crocus Bryan planted last autumn are still tucked in their beds.  Waiting for warmer weather, I suppose..

About this time of year, I like to bring a little spring into the house.  Not from a hot house.  Or the grocery story plant department.  I bring sticks into my house.  Sticks that I cut from the quince bush.  At this time of year, they are just dead sticks.  Brown, apparently with no life in them.  I have to be careful cutting the sticks – they have inch or inch-and-a-half thorns on them and can really hurt the old paper skin on my hands and arms.  Those rose gloves that I’ve talked about help, keeping my hands and arms safe.

Once in the house, I put them into a large vase; about twelve inches high.  Smooth, river rock in the bottom help to steady the vase.  The “dead” sticks can make it off balance, and I don’t want it to tip over.

Then comes PATIENCE.  Real patience.  One week or, maybe, two.  I watch every day to see how the buds, that I may not have seen on the dead branches, begin to swell.  I add a little water, every day or so.  And, the buds continue to swell, until suddenly, there they are – blossoms.

Soft pink with some small green leaves surrounding them.  Up and down the sticks that are no longer “dead.”  If I’ve started this process in February or early March, I have time for two or more sets of sticks.  Beautiful spring in my house on my dining room table.

I’ve never tried this with lilacs, but I do know that yellow forsythia works – that is, if you like yellow flowering bushes.

This year, at the same time the quince brought forth the pink blossoms, I found another wonderful surprise.  Several years ago, I got rid of all of my house plants.  And, to say it is another story is an understatement.  But, it is.  So, when a dear friend gave me a small Christmas cactus – a piece of her larger plant – I added it to my “non-collection” and cared for it until it is now a rather large cactus.  One doesn’t give away a gift from a friend.  It is the only plant that lives in my house; it lives on the dining room table,  where the sun in the afternoon reaches it through the west windows.  I never move it from that spot because it seems to thrive there.

And, every year, it produces four sets of blossoms.  I’ve never known a Christmas cactus to bloom more than once a year – usually, in December – for Christmas; hence it’s name.  But, this gift continues to provide blossoms throughout the year – spring, summer, and autumn, as well as December.  It did not disappoint, this year.  Four blossoms, soon to be six, are on the tips of the leaf stems.  They, too, are pink – almost fuchsia.  Each flower is two, almost three, inches long and will last about a week, until it fades.  Dolores was kind, indeed, to give me this plant.  I feel blessed  to have the Christmas cactus to always remind me of her.

Another surprise was a beautiful, white bouquet from Rita, pictured below.

Spring is here – at least, inside of my house!

Be safe and well.

The Cranky Crone

If you have thoughtful feedback or questions, please let me know with a comment below.