"Trailing Arbutus flower"
"Arbutus plants are a warm weather loving species that thrives in lush, fertile climates. Most often, one can find arbutus plants in the Mediterranean and in warmer areas of North America. Because arbutus plants have their roots in warm weather, they don’t grow well in harsh climates.
In some places, arbutus plants are mistaken for strawberry plants. Because the fruit on the arbutus plant looks a lot like the popular American strawberry, lots of folks mistake the two. These flowers are bell shaped and they are orange colored berries."
My family has a pine covered hill on our home place in the Sandhills of central NC that my mama named "Arbutus Hill". Every spring one of the earliest flowers to bloom was the fragrant arbutus. Mama would go to the hill in search of the tiny flower hidden among the pine straw & return home with her treasure to place in a jelly glass that would sit on the kitchen window sill & fill the house with it's glorious perfume:)
She also loved the beauty of violets, although they couldn't rival the arbutus in fragrance. They grow wild in the country so we always had hundreds flowering in our yard during March & April.
I noticed today along our Shepherd's Vineyard green-way small open areas carpeted with the purple beauties.
Mama would gather a bouquet of the delicate violet blossoms & find another perfect-sized jelly glass in order to savor the little flowers inside as well as outside:)
Oh so simple, oh so small, the joys of life:)
Roseland
1 comment:
I don't know if you remember but once Mama was published in The Sandhill Citizen during a Valentines write-in on your favorite Valentine. She wrote how Daddy always brought her the first blooming arbutus and she considered that her Valentine from him. Remember?
The violets are blooming now and Harley & Kendyll picked a bouquet for Carrie. They always bloom for her birthday!
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