Nothing says, “I love you”, like flowers

It is true – nothing says, “I love you”, like the gift of flowers and for many of us, this is our first choice for Mother’s Day. In the USA Mother’s Day is normally the second Sunday in May. In Poland it is on 26 May this year. But in the UK, Mother’s Day is on Sunday 19 March.

Homegrown crocuses, growing though carnation leaves

March 19 is early in the year in terms of options for home-grown seasonal Mother’s Day flowers and for this reason huge numbers are imported from abroad. This year it also seems that most plants are flowering later than normal. Snowdrop  drifts can still be seen everywhere, in many cases the flowers are only now opening and daffodils too are just beginning to appear in drifts above the ground. To satisfy our demand for cut flowers, most are imported, coming mainly from the Netherlands, where they are mass-produced in heated greenhouses. Beautiful though they are, this is not an environmentally sustainable approach. And an increasing number now come from Kenya, with even greater impact on the environment in terms of global miles travelled and the water required to grow them. Apart from the energy used / carbon footprint, there is increasing concern over the chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides used to ensure that perfect blooms are available for us to buy from florists here in the UK for Mother’s Day at this time of year. Are there alternatives to this business model, that are kinder to the environment and promote biodiversity? What are our options?

Homegrown beautiful snowdrops and Cyclamen in a bed of thick moss

Perhaps if we moved the date of Mother’s Day back to May, like most other countries, there would be more homegrown seasonal choice available, but the early date in the UK is because Mother’s Day is tied to the religious festival of Easter. As the date for Easter changes each year, so does the date of Mother’s Day. But this just makes planning difficult for the florist industry. Maybe it is time to unlink Mother’s Day from Easter and move it to mid-May like everyone else, as a focus on our actual mothers, rather than the religious figurehead. Why not? That way we would have a greater choice of our own beautiful seasonal flowers and plants to give. And rather than damaging the environment, this could create homegrown businesses, with real jobs, also enhancing biodiversity – all on a carbon-neutral basis.

Hardy homegrown heathers are reliable and come in many colours

Another option is to find an alternative to cut flowers. One possibility is to give a real plant in a pot, that can be kept as a lasting reminder of the love we feel for our mums.  This could be an indoor houseplant or perhaps a flowering plant or even a shrub like a scented lilac or Daphne, to be planted outside. Other hardy alternatives that will flower earlier in the year are yellow Eranthis and daffodils, blue Chionodoxa, yellow Primula, white Galanthus, many-coloured Crocuses and tulips and mauve Cyclamen, as common examples. They can be planted in pots that can be moved about or they can be planted outside and left to spread to form beautiful colourful drifts as the years go by. Such plants can accrue their own set of memories, becoming a lasting reminder of mum and Mother’s Day.

Homegrown beautiful Eranthis will spread across the flowerbed

An alternative to giving real plants and flowers is to give a copy of SeeHow – a unique flowering and growing guide – the perfect gift for anyone who loves flowers, but is not quite sure which flowers to choose or who wants to explore colourful flower combinations from the comfort of home. SeeHow works using month-by-month illustrations with key technical information on the back of each one – no gardening knowledge is required to plan a beautiful and colourful garden that will give pleasure all-year-round. It is all about what you would like to see in your garden. A picture really is worth 1,000 words.

Some early-flowering SeeHow plant illustrations

The plants illustrated above are:

Lonicera, Galanthus, Iris, Chionodoxa, 2 x Crocuses, Jasminum, 2 x Daffodils, Skimmia, Primula, Helleborus, Convallaria, Leucojum, Fritillaria, Kerria, 2 x Tulipa, Daphne, Erythronium

Happy Mother’s Day!

The above Text and all Photographs are copyright of Wincenty (Wicek) Sosna. Please contact SeeHow for permission to reproduce in any way, in part or as the complete text.