Writer / Nancy Craig
From the book, “Isabella’s Garden” by Glenda Millard & Rebecca Cool: “These are the flowers that waltz with the wind that ruffles the buds, all velvety-skinned that swelled the shoots that sought the sun that kissed the clouds that cried the rain that soaked the seeds that slept in the soil all dark and deep, in Isabella’s garden.” With the wonderful word pictures and cumulative story you can read about Isabella’s garden from the beginning of planting the seeds to their flowering and back to the seeds again.
Last fall we saved several kinds of flower seeds and bulbs from our garden that we will plant this spring. Some of the seeds we will plant right in the garden when the weather warms up, like our Love in a Mist flowers, but others we can start inside. My great nieces, Lindsey and Lauren, will plant our Hyacinth Beans that will grow into a vine with beautiful pink sweet pea like flowers that will definitely “waltz in the wind.”
My great-nephews, Max and Eli, like to plant the elephant ear (Colocasia) bulbs for their jungle container gardens that they have on their deck each summer. It might be fun to try some new varieties like the Thailand Giant Elephant Ear Plant that has leaves that are 4 feet by 5 feet and grows to 9 feet tall! Maybe we can talk the boys into trying another tropical plant the ‘Bengal Tiger’ Canna that has green and yellow striped, maroon-edged leaves and bright-orange flowers and grows to 6 feet tall.
The twins will start a new container garden with the Canna rhizomes that I have saved over the winter. We can start them in pots now and leave them in the garage until it is warm enough to place them outside. Once we set the pots outside we are going to add some flowers to mound at the base and some to trail over the container. The elephant ears and cannas both have dramatic leaves, but the Cannas have gorgeous red flower spikes that the hummingbirds love.
While we wait for the seeds and bulbs to sprout the boys can play their Minecraft and the twins can play the Hello Kitty’s Garden.
“These are the seeds
that sleep in the soil,
all dark and deep, in Isabella’s garden.”
The Gardening Nana
