When I lived in Boston years ago, I briefly worked for an architectural graphic design firm. One of my jobs was to buy flowers each week for the office—and come back with a receipt. I usually bought them from a florist, but one day I was in Downtown Crossing and decided to buy a bouquet from a flower stand. As I always did, I asked for a receipt. The proprietor didn’t have a cash register and so he gave me a handwritten receipt. It said, “Flowas, $5.00.” Flowas: the Bostonian phonetic spelling.
My flower garden is my primary distraction from smoking (other than eating and sleeping, which are increasingly impinging on my flower time). I actually made a list of every plant in the garden because it was getting close to nightfall and I couldn’t really do anything outside and I needed to do something to distract myself for an hour. I listed more than 50 varieties of flowers, shrubs, and herbs. To further distract myself as nightfall nears, I am typing them out here.
- Aster
- Astilbe
- Baby’s Breath
- Basil
- Begonia
- Bleeding Heart
- Blue Geranium
- Chives (two varieties)
- Climbing Rose
- Columbine
- Cotoneaster
- Coreopsis (several varieties)
- Echinacea
- Fuschia
- Geranium
- Hosta
- Hydrangea
- Impatiens
- Japanese Fern
- Lady Fern
- Larkspur
- Lavender
- Lilac
- Loosestrife
- Lupine
- Mexican Heather
- Monkshood
- Mullein
- Oregano
- Phlox (several varieties)
- Pinks (several varieties)
- Roma Tomatoes
- Rosemary
- Russian Sage
- Sage
- Salvia
- Santolina
- Shasta Daisy
- Snapdragons
- Speedwell
- Spirea
- Stonecrop (several varieties)
- Sweet Alyssum
- Sweet Woodruff
- Thrift
- Thyme
- Trailing Petunia
- Trailing Vinca
- Virginia Bluebells
- Yarrow
I think I have a couple others but I can’t identify them because they haven’t bloomed yet. All of the plants above comprise four flower beds in a chaotic, unsophisticated cottage garden style. We keep talking about getting rocks to border the biggest plot, and someday we probably will. But for now all I care about is keeping myself busy—weeding, deadheading, whatever—and filling the clay pitcher with fresh wildflowers for as many days as I can.
