Greenhousing on the back roads

Spring ritual, the first of May, opening day. Empty out your largest vehicle, grab some empty flats left over from last spring and your favorite gardening companion and head out for the day. Get an early start so you don’t miss a thing. Drive anywhere and everywhere. Don’t stop to eat. Why waste time when you can be with the flowers? After a long winter the only sustenance you need is to stand in the greenhouse and drink in the luminous colors and heady fragrances of things green and growing. Pink pillar geraniums that promise to climb sky high and bloom all summer, new guinea impatiens painted in reds and violets and oranges so bright they seem to vibrate, and all those impossibly beautiful glowing, gorgeous yellow begonias…