I was doing just fine Sunday morning, reading by the fire with a mug of cocoa at my side. We still hadn’t taken down the Christmas tree. A snowstorm was forecast for Monday. I planned to nap later in the afternoon, as soon as I came home from the National Green Centre Show.
I don’t frequent horticultural trade shows, but I’d seen an announcement for the Sweet Melissa benefit fashion show of the trendiest new plants. The idea of a flower fashion show tickled me. I wound my way through America’s Center, followed the pulsing music, found the stage, and watched a succession of moderately attractive young men and women in black stagger onto the stage clutching pots of petunias, shopping bags of hydrangeas, river birch saplings and baby hornbeams. At first, I was too amused by the runway poses to focus on the plants. Then I noticed Petunia Black Velvet, which looks exactly like black velvet and would be gorgeous in a pale gray stone planter. It was followed by Petunia Pinstripe, dark purple with a creamy-white star in the center, and Petunia Phantom, black with a Warhol-yellow star.
Then came the Pretty Much Picasso Supertunia whose purple flowers are outlined in acid green; a fiery-red American hornbeam; new First Editions hibiscus in Bali, Fiji, and Tahiti; and Gator, an aloe with a reptilian pattern on its leaves; and Superbells Coralberry Punch, a hot, bright combo of pinky-orange and burgundy Calibrachoa.
I craved spring. Sunshine to soften the hard ground. Gentle breezes. Mulch.
Dawdling on my way out, I passed a booth with a delicate coral trailing impatiens that would bring unbelievable color into the most shady spot, and a geranium in a shade of tangerine I’ve never seen before.
I started scheming locations, jotting a list. Then I crumpled it. It was still winter. And now I was discontent.
