Bundled Indoors

Snow arrived, as promised, and blanketed a rather drab decor with a fresh coat of white. I’m bundled indoors, cozy next to the fireplace and a thick pile of flower catalogs: the summer bulbs are here.

What’s featured in the glossy pages? Gladioli, every breed of lily in existence and tuberoses, but the best pictures are of dahlias, the giant kind, which grows the size of a child’s head, in every color imaginable.

Their colorful tapestry looks unreal compared to the view out the window, white on white, with white accents.

I promise to finally try dahlias this year. I think I figured out why they never made it to my garden: by the time the flower beds are cleaned and ready to plant, it’s already too late to start them. Not this year, though.

Seed starting is tempting again this year, because there are some beautiful and unusual plants, especially perennials, you can’t get any other way.

Maybe some weird tomato breeds…

To be honest, I only start tomato plants from seed because they have a fast, 100% germination rate and that feels very rewarding on a gloomy February day, but goodness knows they’ll sprout upside down from cement all on their own if their seeds happen to fall on it.

I can’t dig myself out of the ones that volunteered in the front yard last season, and every year the veggie fairy brings more.