Love with a “d”

I like to garden. Well, that’s a bit of an over statment. I like plants. I like flowers. Not sure what I do really constitutes gardening.

But my mother-in-law is a Master Gardener. She came to visit once and I thought my woodland yard looked charming. She gifted me with a rake.

When I visited her in September 2011, I saw her yard and it was gorgeous. And a gorgeous yard in Iowa is something. I mean, I live in California near the coast.  My biggest challenge is the deer.

But for my mother in law, she has to contend with snow and flood level rains as well as that wilting heat. As my in laws regularly point out, Iowa has all FOUR seasons. As a gardener, she earns that “master” title. And then some.

So, she sent me some seeds of a gorgeous periwinkle blue flower called Love In the Mist. She sent the seeds and told me that she found them growing in a rocky area with bad soil. They reseed themselves and certainly aren’t picky surviving neglect and abuse. They will grow anywhere.

They’re hardy, adaptable and beautiful. They’re even great looking as they’re going to seed. And the deer leave them alone. Even I, of the rakeless beds and deer decimated roses, might be able to get these flowers to go.

And I thought maybe they should be called Love In the MiDst. Love in the midst of hard times, bad times, neglect. Love growing and blooming without any real effort.

I wish love in real life could be like that.