Three Weeks and Counting
March 3, 2026
Yes, Sir. A short three weeks until the first day of Spring. If you’re like me counting the days isn’t quite enough. particularly after the absolutely brutal Winter we’ve just experienced! It’s the perfect time now to bring a little bit of early spring inside, just in case we get the surprise cluster of days with double digit below zero bone chillers or a morning surprise of 9″ of fresh snow. If Mother Nature can, she will. And, she’ll do it with a double whammy. From the supermarket, the corner bodega to Trader Joe’s you’re sure to find a bunch of affordable cut flowers that will bring you that much closer to the end of all of this. Here are just a few of my simplequietmodern favorites. A quick cut and drop into a simple glass cylinder and you’ll be armed and ready for the week ahead.
Come the first of March bunches of field Daffodils are available everywhere for a couple of bucks a bunch. A great value and the best yellow ever!
If you’re lucky, a florist near you might be able to supply you with a nice bunch of forced flowering branches for a larger statement. You can’t go wrong with something white or a burst of yellow Forsythia or coral Quince.
Trader Joes still has potted Hellebore plants that you can plant outdoors once the weather breaks. Come the end of next Winter you’ll see them popping up through remnants of snow still on the ground. Generally shades of white, green, pink and burgundy are avaiable.
Keep your eye’s open for something more exotic and tropical like this green orchid plant or cut pincushion Protea in yellow. They’ll definitely bring to mind warmer days ahead.
Any seasonal cut flower does it for me. What can I say, I just love any and all of the Spring bulb flowers like hyacinths and tulips. While white is usually my first choice, shades of pink or yellow will bring me out of a Winter funk.
Photos:gp
It was worth the wait.
May 21, 2013
Muscari. Grape Hyacinths. Tiny floral jewels popping up in the spring soon after the crocus. But, this year? What happened? It might have been Spring’s late start or the rollercoaster of low to high temperatures every other day that held them off. Whatever it was, they’re here now…in waves of violet-blue against the chalky white of the birch…the fresh green of new grass. Time to grab a handful to bring indoors before the lawn crew comes and ….well, you know, that’ll be the end of that. And, what a perfect container in this Mid-Century piece of Murano glass. My favorite vase shape, a cylinder, allows the hyacinths to arrange themselves when simply dropped in. I usually only pull this out to showcase Spring’s first daffodils, but when I noticed the similarity of the Muscari florets to the broken canes captured in this ” end of day” mix, well…it was a no-brainer.
Midwinter
December 21, 2012
Odd name for the Winter solstice which is actually the first day of the season. Call it what you will, it is absolutely my most favorite of days. It marks the shortest day of the year in terms of daylight but signals the slow, steady increase in daylight hours as we move into spring. Sure, it might not seem like a big thing to you but trust me, if you live anywhere near the midwest, you will immediately notice that the sky has not gone to pitch at 4:45 in the afternoon. There is a feeling of hope…yes, that spring is just one season away. So, celebrate with me if you care to, with anything ( hell, everything ) that reminds you of spring… and relish every extra minute of daylight.
simplequietmodern 