A Taste of Spring

Since spring can't be found outdoors in Maine this time of year, Ken and I gave ourselves a little treat last week by going to the Portland Flower Show. We weren't disappointed. The smell of the rich earth, the sound of running water, the sight of blooming flowers...all of them let us escape reality for a few hours and pretend spring had arrived.

 

I'm always amazed at the amount of work the various exhibitors put into creating their gardens. Look at this waterfall, for instance.

And this granite table!

I loved the daffodils and hyacinths. Somewhere under the deep snow in my gardens, I have daffodils and hyacinths, too....

The white tulips against the huge urn made a pretty arrangement.

More beauty.

That's a Harry Lauder's Walking Stick, a contorted hazelnut, just in front of the red tulips. (Double click on the photo if you'd like to see it more clearly.) That's something I want to add to my garden. I also see a Japanese maple to the left. I'd love to have one of these, too, but they don't grow all that reliably in southern Maine. I've seen these in Wiscasset, which is farther north, but I suppose the ocean air there provides milder temperatures.

 

Many vendors, selling everything from houseplants to jewelry, fudge to plant pots, and packaged herbs to...YARN!...added even more interest to the event. I came home with 15 Asiatic and Oriental lily bulbs from Maplecrest Lilies in East Parsonsfield, Maine. The vendor at this stall assured me the bulbs can go into the ground as soon as the soil is workable. I don't have to wait until "all danger of frost is past," which is good news here in southern Maine, where "all danger of frost is past" in late May.

It was a bit of a shock for us to step outside the flower show building and back into the real world of winter, but the brief visit with spring was worth it.