When we bought our first house I created two little flower beds in the corners of our backyard. I had never had my own flower beds or grown any flowers for that matter but I was so excited! I decided to plant gladiolus and sunflowers, two of my favorite flowers. I cleared the beds of all grass and weeds and planted the gladiolus bulbs and little sunflowers seeds with the hope of beautiful flowers to come. Every day I’d wander to the backyard to check on my little miracles and slowly but surely little sprouts emerged out of the earth! I was ecstatic!! I had beautiful sunflowers and gladiolus that butterflies, hummingbirds, bees and dragonflies loved! I took so many pictures and spent many morning having my coffee amongst the flowers. 

At our current house we have so many tress and shade it’s hard to have any flowers grow but I was determined to have at least gladiolus and I do! They are blooming now and I still get excited as if they were my first ones. I have also planted some sunflowers in a field behind our house and I’m hoping in the next month or so they will have bloomed. Did you know young sunflowers “move” to face the sun throughout the day, but once they reach maturity, they stop sun-tracking, their blooms forever turned eastward. How amazing is that! 

I often wonder if the new owners kept the flower beds because the gladiolus return every year. It would be so sad if they didn’t. They brought me so much joy.