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It’s hard to believe that Easter is near. Just a few days from now the bunny will be hopping around and children will be at play seeking out Easter eggs. Baskets of candy appear overnight, and the Easter lily’s fragrance wafts down church aisles, Oh what a sight!

The choices are endless the message is clear – Easter is a time of good will, renewal, new life, and new beginnings. Spring flowers in particular, symbolize the start of a new year.

Since Easter this year falls on the eight day of spring, I thought I would share the choices available for an eight flower bouquet from the blooms on display at floral shops this week. Like at Akiko’s in downtown Wellsboro where I stopped to shop this week.

1. Tulips. They come in five colors, six petals to each. Some are near scentless, while others smell sweet.

2. Daffodils. Lovely shades of yellow and white petals encircle the cup-like-structure called a corona. The corona or crown can be yellow, orange, apricot, or pink.

3. Hyacinths. The heady perfume of the oriental Hyacinth comes in 60 different cultivars. So your choices are endless if you shop for them online. Dominant colors most commonly found in floral arrangements are blue, purple, pink, red, and white.

4. Crocus. The choices and colors are endless, some 80 species in all. Hundreds of hybrids make these spring ephemeral’s a great Easter choice.

5. Iris. What can I say, the choices are in the thousands. Plant one color combination a day, every day of the year, and you’ll be planting them for well on three years.

6. Muscari lilies. Liriope muscari are a grass like turf species. The Missouri botanical garden describes them as “erect, showy flower spikes with tiered whorls of dense, lilac flowers, somewhat resembling grape hyacinth (Muscari)”

7. Cut Flowers. Daisies are the national flower of Latvia and a universal symbol of spring. They will brighten up any bouquet and bring a smile to your face.

8. Easter Lilies. In the Kingdom of Plantae, the Easter Lily is Queen. Allegorically represented in myths, fables, and legends throughout time, this lily, called Lilium longifolium, is the symbol of purity. A Poem by Louise Lewin Matthews found in Part V: Easter Lily Quotations on page 191 of the 1916 Stanley Schell compilation entitled ‘Easter Celebrations’ says it all. (Published in 1916 by Edgar S. Werner & Company, New York).

Easter morn with lilies fair
Fills the church with perfumes rare,
As their clouds of incense rise,
Sweetest offerings to the skies.
Stately lilies pure and white
Flooding darkness with their light,
Bloom and sorrow drifts away,
On this holy hallow’d day.
Easter Lilies bending low
in the golden afterglow,
Bear a message from the sod
To the heavenly towers of God.

______

Authors note: Just remember, the Easter lily is a beautiful flower but it is highly toxic to cats. All parts of Easter lilies, tiger lilies and Asiatic hybrid lilies, including the pollen, cause imminent kidney failure in cats if ingested. Enjoy your Easter flowers but keep them and the CHOCOLATE away from your pets. Happy Easter, everyone.