Emergent

Last month, J and I drove to Boylston, MA to see the annual orchid show at the New England Botanical Garden at Tower Hill. March orchids are hothouse flowers, cultivated to bloom indoors when the weather outside is harsh and inhospitable. Orchid shows are designed to give winter-weary New Englanders a respite from the season: a spot of color and warmth at a time when both are lacking.

Today, J and I returned to Tower Hill, but we didn’t set foot in the indoor conservatories. Instead, we headed straight to the daffodil field, where thousands of hardy flowers emerge every year, undaunted by the mood swings of so-called Spring. Both daffodils and tulips are bred to be ostentatious and obvious: there are no shrinking subtleties here. After months of relentless gray, we are as eager to be outside as perennials emerging from hibernation.