FLOWERS WILL BLOOM IN SEPTEMBER

Today is the first full day of spring. Is anybody in the whole world more pleased than I to see it? I am hoping to grow flowers on my balcony. I am hoping grocery stores will bring in bedding plants that can be purchased along with groceries. If they can’t I’ll forgive them. They might have more important things to stock. I would start seeds if I had them. Unfortunately I don’t have any seeds, but I do have acidanthra bulbs. They are waiting for me in a pot on the shelf in the closet of the guest bedroom. I put them there last October. “See you in the spring,” I said to them. “I’ll be planting you as soon as the soil thaws in my balcony pots.” Acidanthra plants are a bit like gladioli. They sprout uninteresting green shoots that bore you for most of the summer. Then, on some August day, you’ll notice a thickening, later a stock, later still the final pay-off. I bought and planted a bag of acidanthra bulbs last spring. I hadn’t had any for a few years. They were just as I remembered—boring! Then, in September they opened their flowers. They were just as I remembered--tall, white, delicate and marvellously fragrant. Lured by intoxicating temptation, I made several balcony visits every day just to smell them. And that is what I want to do this September—wander out on the balcony to smell the flowers. In the meantime, I’ll wait with those boring plants. I’ll be waiting for a virus to run its course, for the coffee shops to open again, for exercise classes to start, for social gatherings on my calendar. I’ll be waiting to see so many people I won’t be seeing on a regular basis. Flowers will bloom in September!