With springtime just around the corner, a great and long held tradition is sneaking up on me. Every year without fail since I was a little girl, my mum and I have gone to our favourite garden shop to find the plants of the season. I know most people just buy all the plants for their house when they move in, and then only do a little maintenance when required, but where’s the fun in that? Mum gave me a love of gardening, and she’s not the kind of person who’s happy to look at the same thing day in, day out her whole life. She wants something different, and I can’t say I blame her.
This year, it’s all about the gladioli. Mum’s a huge fan of having an explosive pop of colour or two, just to liven the place up, but despite that she’s never gone down the hyacinth road. It’s actually quite strange that she hasn’t. I mean, over the years, mum’s grown almost every type of flower imaginable in that garden of hers, from alstromeria to zephyranthes, but never has she had a hyacinth. Not that she’s got anything against them, just that it’s never seemed to happen. Either they’d run out of stock or she’d found something online beforehand and decided that she just had to have it. Even when that is the case, and mum knows exactly what she wants before we even go to the nursery, it’s still an experience to go there. I just love wandering through the aisles, looking at all the different types of Summer flowering bulbs and seedlings that will one day grow into a big and strong plant all in their own right. It doesn’t even matter that I don’t live at home anymore, it’s really just a fun mother-daughter activity we do once a year.