Blooming in Anticipation

Terrain Blooming
Photography by Terrain

By Tovah Martin

Can’t wait for spring? Venture out, fetch some branches, bring them indoors, and watch a spring prelude unfold. 

Who isn’t impatient in late winter? Who isn’t bored with the bitter brown, blah outdoors and starved for a precocious dab of color? By Valentine’s Day, even “Think Snow” types are finally weary of the white stuff and ready to move on. Unfortunately, the weather rarely agrees. If spring can’t come fast enough for you, there is a remedy. Bring nature indoors and do spring yourself.

Winter Flowers
Photography by Kindra Clineff

When not even the slightest promise of pussy willows is evident outdoors, you can still see a prelude to spring unfold. Just foray outside during a January thaw or a February warm up (waiting for a March meltdown is not necessary), cut some branches, and bring them indoors. With nothing more than a vase filled with water as a tool, you can watch spring’s magic unfold right in the comfort of your cozy cottage. Soon, your life will be accented by a bouquet of homegrown blossoms happening right on the twig. Forced branches are gorgeously graceful and disarmingly poetic. They are just enough of a tease to get you safely through mud season and span the gap before the spring show begins outdoors.

Winter Flowers
Photography by Kindra Clineff