A love of pansies

One of my favorite moments of early spring is when pansies arrive at the nursery. Earlier this week, when I did the one-hour each-way drive to the big city so my wizard stylist could do my hair, I made an obligatory stop at Starbucks, sneaked in a quick lunch with my wonderful friend, KG, and planned a detour to my favorite nursery in search of spring pansies.

I was in luck, and found some gorgeous baskets and planters with both my preferred color pansies, the deep yellow and crimson and the purple and blue, as well as violas, the smaller version of pansies that always strike me as so friendly because of their smiling faces and sunny dispositions.

I've loved pansies ever since I saw them when I first arrived in the United States 31 years ago, in 1978. I've moved around a lot since arriving in Boston so many years ago, but every place I've lived this side of the Atlantic I've found a way to have pansies in both early spring and early fall.

These cool-loving flowers don't do well in the summer heat, so they don't exist in my tropical island and I don't really remember them much in Washington, D.C., where I lived for a few years during my ill-fated stint in law school. But everywhere chilly I've lived, they've been a faithful companion and lifter-of-spirits because of their bold colors and hardy nature. I guess their boldness and deep, impossible-to-ignore hues remind me of my beloved tropics.

Today, my husband took these gorgeous pictures so I could share them with you and I think these snapshots truly capture the simple prettiness of these happy flowers. After bringing them home earlier this week, I dusted off my flower stands and placed the pansies in front of both doors to the apartment so I could see them any which way I come home.

Pansies are hopeful little flowers, whose frost resistance allows them to brave the huge temperature swings of March in Ohio when we go from 60-degree days to 30-degree nights. This morning, there was a layer of frost on the grass when I awoke to 31 degrees but the pansies, though a bit downcast at first, perked up considerably as the day warmed and the sun came out, even if for a short while.

After the brave snowdrops and daffodils and crocuses sprout from the ground, the pansies are the next sure thing that tells me winter will soon be relegated to a bad memory, and that warmer, more welcomed and cheerier weather is just around the bend.