Lily of the valley

Though we are far from the early summer bloom of these tender flowers, here they are today, in midwinter. They hardly look like the lilies that we are so used to, the fireworks of summery daylilies in yellow and spotted orange - no subtlety to those colors so no adjective modifiers needed - and a far cry from the La Reve or Rubrum lilies in the pink camp. Nonetheless...

Recently, my friend asked me why I love flowers so much. I did work in a florist for many years as an assistant, and delivery person and learned a lot about flowers (and much more about the gossip around town), but much more about grumpy, snobby flower consumers. But that is another story. My boss, C., understood the pure joy that a flower can bring, and so I felt lucky to be working with such a kindred spirit. So perhaps that is the start of why I love flowers so much, knowing that someone else lived in a passion for flowers. Of course, I grew up with a silver spoon in my mouth, with, therefore, access to high-end flowers and the time and will and capital to enjoy them.

Perhaps it is also because my Granny and mother always read to me from the Flower Fairies series when I was small, see box with rendition of a lily of the valley flower fairy to the left (also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_fairies)...so I was convinced that all flowers had little tiny magic fairy people in them. I loved the original flower fairy books and images, because they were true to life with botanical-ish drawings, not crappy cheesy American flowery crap.



Lilies of the valley are an old fashioned flower, to my mind. I think they are often used in weddings (my mother carried only these flowers at her wedding to my Dad, and she had to fight for them, the florist and her mother deemed her "too tall" for those flowers as they are so petite -she won) and they have a lovely soft and simple scent... and clearly the flowers exude some sort of art deco vibe, exemplified in the vase pictured here...


Lily of the valley plants grew like hotcakes in the backyard (specifically, the rock garden) at home, so it was my first favorite flower (I have a series of them, stay tuned). The last photo, with the pink-tinged lilies of the valley is similar to what went on in my parents' rock garden each June...

The scent is lovely, delicate, not cloying. Enjoy.