For Mothers Day: Visit Your Local Greenhouse!

Sunday, after church, my sweet husband said we were going to Big John's greenhouses to buy our hanging pots of asparagus fern for our porch (asparagus fern is the ONLY thing that will survive the rough winds out here, we've tried almost everything!). We've gone to Big John's FOREVER. He's a customer where my husband has worked for thirty years and they know each other well and like each other very much. John and Pat are good-hearted, warm,small town people. We love them. They are the very best kind of people and we've been their customers for years, too. It feels so good to support a local business...especially when you know and love the family.

But while we were there, he told me to pick out my Mother's Day gift...from all that I saw, I could choose whatever I wanted. Last year, he surprised me with a pedestal pot with an arrangement of annuals in red, white and blue that was just gorgeous because he knew how much I liked Pat's arrangements.

This year I could choose. So...I began. I savored it, looked around. I happened to have his small digital camera in my purse. So I took it out. I was thinking how nice it would be to have these pictures to look at next winter, I could use them for screensavers-- and I could share them with you. There is nothing more glorious on which to feast the eyes for those who endure the long, gray winters of Michigan than greenhouses packed full of heavenly blooms. (When I think of heaven, it surely must be like this! Surely we will stand in His presence and just breathe it all in!)

Let's enjoy our visit to this little heaven on earth and a visual feast for our eyes together!

Big John's wife, Pat, makes the most spectacular arrangements in containers, it's her artwork. Big John has been going through chemo, has been fighting three types of cancer all at one time. I wonder if working with these flowers helps John and Pat somehow get through it all. (John and Pat could use our prayers if you wouldn't mind mentioning them to God.)

I have an idea for those hanging petunia bags that I hope to show you soon!

I enjoyed walking through this purple haze overhead!

Gerbera daisies, simple and bright!

Geraniums...

More of Pat's artwork...

A ruffly, rosy-looking trailing petunia! Isn't God so good at his artwork?

As far as I'm concerned, there could be no better Mother's Day gift than that of a visit to a greenhouse where she browse, enjoy all the color and sights, and can choose her heart's desire!

Begonia

Below are my two choices: daisies for their sunshine value and a red, white and blue mixed basket for the front porch! Thanks, honey-babe!

These are something that I will be enjoying for a long, long time! XOXO