Magic.

Plants seem magical to me...To go from a tiny, speck of a seed and grow into a strong plant full of color or one of many other amazing attributes.  How do they do it?  Forget all of the science involved with cell division and such.  I say it's magic.  Mother Nature waves her magic wand & voila!...there you have it...a pretty little plant blooming in all its glory. 

I couldn't tell you when I first became interested in plants, flowers, gardening...looking back, it seems like they have just always been a part of me.  My first real interest in one group of plants came about in high school...perennial flowers...my first real plant addiction.  Next, hostas.  My mom questioned it...and I have to admit, I questioned myself a bit, too.  What is my fascination with these things?!...afterall, they are just leafy creatures that throw up a few spikes of flowers, right??  Nope.  I began to notice every little detail about them...color, texture, size, shape, flowers.  The next plant groupings...shrubs, trees, evergreens {I began to love any things about each one -- size, shape, foliage, bark, flowers} and then came...ANNUALS!

Really?! Annuals?!...but they only last one year...that's it.  As I had with all of the other plant groups that I had fallen in love with, I found a love for annuals.  They provided color and flowers at times when no other perennial, tree or shrub could.  You can easily mix them & match them in pots and move them around for a different design.  Not only that, but with many, you can plant multiple "crop" successions to get their flowers all season long! 

Now, as a specialty cut flower grower, I see the magic in almost every plant.  Every plant has a use or a design function for me.  No obvious flowers?...what about the foliage color, texture, shape or scent?  Gone for me are the cookie cutter FTD bouquets that you find in many floral chains.  I want the magic that comes with seeing a plant for all of its beauty...a sort of inner/outer appreciation of beauty.  I want an amazingly unique, bursting with life, gorgeous bouquet!...a bouquet that can only be described as a work-of-art...magical...