I Was Thinking... Why Flowers?

This spring in Kasson, one of the busiest businesses was Houston’s greenhouse. But they aren’t unique. People that live in an area where a good portion of the year is spent in snow and cold, are very eager to frequent any place that has a stock of green and growing things, and especially flowers.
Greenhouses are the destination of thousands if not millions of patrons each spring. But the question is, why?
What is it about flowers that draws so many people who are willing to put down their hard-earned money for something that really doesn’t do anything. If you buy tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, or any other vegetable, you at least are counting on a return on your investment. But not so with most flowers.
Yet most greenhouses offer a much larger range of blooming plants than the number of those plain green vegetables. No one really gets excited when they buy their seed potatoes, bean seeds, or onion sets. But watch a person carrying out a hanging basket, a bright red geranium, or colorful pansies, and they seem to have a special glow as they take their treasures to the car.
Flowers are more expensive, generally can’t be eaten, take a lot of care and usually die in the fall. So, what is the attraction?
After surviving another winter and enduring spring that often reveals the dirt that was left behind, we need something refreshing. So, you seek out a greenhouse that is a palette of color. Plants of red, yellow, purple, orange, white, blue, and green assail the shopper’s eye and reminds them that life can be beautiful again. So, there you have it. The reason for flowers, beauty.
Too often in life we are constantly shown the ugliness that surrounds us. Generally, we feel powerless to change much of that. But in our own little corner of the world, we can do something that shows a brighter side. It may just be a couple of flowerpots, a window box, or a hanging basket, but it brightens the area around it.
Plants are very beneficial. Trees produce shade, fruit or can be cut for lumber. Corn, peas, beans, and all kinds of vegetables and crops are sources of food.
But a flower exists for show. Tulips and daffodils are the harbingers of spring as they struggle through nearly frozen ground to be the first to provide beauty before everything else gets going. They grow, bloom, and in short order die back after doing their job. They live long enough to produce food to feed their bulbs, so they can survive another winter and do it again next year.
Petunias produce buds, burst into colorful shapes, wilt, and are pinched off so more flowers can flourish. Across our lawns a new crop of flowers voluntarily emerge. Their yellow flowers are in contrast to the green around them. While I enjoy the green and gold combination, most work to rid their lawns of them.
Roses, those temperamental and difficult plants are the queen of the flowers. Yet there seems to be a love/hate relationship with their owners. A friend of mine buys them, prunes them, feeds them, powders them and puts them to bed and covers them with leaves in the fall. All this, for what might result in great beauty or a major disappointment. Yet he continues year after year. The beauty they provide is worth the risk of failure caused by mites, cut worms, or a fungus.
On a trip to Germany, Austria and Switzerland a couple years ago, certain things stood out. Seeing the Alps for the first time was awe inspiring. Something so majestic and formattable can never be forgotten, but another image remembered were the flowers. Almost all the houses in Germany had window boxes filled with brilliantly colored flowers. The houses, the streets, and the towns were clean and well kept, but it was the flowers that stood out. All just for beauty.
Did You Ever Wonder? Which orange came first — the fruit or the color?
Photo: Ron Albright