My Favorite Flowers

I've wanted to write a blog like this for ages - where I just get to talk about my favorite flowers. My favorites are usually determined by smell and color. I think I will list them in chronological order of the when I determined that they were one of my favorite flowers.

The first "favorite flower" I ever determined was lilacs. My favorite color is purple, and lilacs come in all shades of purple (and in white). The pale purple that most lilacs are is my favorite shade. They also smell amazing. They aren't very photogenic flowers unless you get up really close, but the little florets are very dainty-looking.

The common blue violet is another old favorite of mine. I decided they were my favorite simply because they are dainty-looking and come in all shades of purple, too, and later learned that they're also my "birth flower"--the flower for the month of February. They have a faint, sweet smell and also a very short season (and a very short flower!). They're a very common flower and aren't usually grown in gardens.

Snowdrop. I like to attribute my interest in flowers to my grandma, who I spent a lot of time with and who liked to garden. I was a reader as a kid, and the first thing I did after deciding I really liked flowers was go investigate Grandma's old World Book encyclopedias for articles on flowers. One of the pictures I remember was of a flower garden against a picket fence, and many of my favorite flowers were determined by that photo. Snowdrops was one of the flowers pictured. They're an early spring flower, like the crocus. I have never actually seen a snowdrop before, but I still like how they look and also their name.

Delphinium. This was another favorite flower determined by that encyclopedia picture. I've recently rediscovered my love for them, though. The florists I work with put them in their arrangements a lot and they smell really good and the main colors they come in are breathtaking blues. They also come in white, purples and some pinks though.

Lupine. As a kid, I read a story about a person who wanted to make the world a more beautiful place, so he or she (I can't remember which it was!) went around America planting these flowers, lupines. I wanted to make the world a more beautiful place, too, and planting flowers seemed like an amazing way of doing it. So lupines became one of my favorite flowers due to that book. They come in a vast array of colors, like snapdragons. Pinks and blues and purples are the most common. They are tall on spikes like delphinium, but their blossoms look like pillows instead of open flowers.

Bluebells. I can't remember where I first learned about bluebells. But it was probably that encyclopedia. Once I saw a picture of them, I fell in love. They looked just like fairy flowers to me and I created a whole set of flower fairies based on bluebells. Someday I'd like to go to England, where I know they have just carpets of bluebells in their forests.

As you can see, purple-blue flowers were my primary draw as a child. I loved the color purple with all my heart, but as I got older I began to appreciate flowers of other colors too.

Snapdragons. When I was in 5th grade, my family took a trip to the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, B.C., a trip I absolutely loved and cannot wait to duplicate. I had known about snapdragons before, but I had never seen so many snapdragons in so many vibrant colors in my life, and I fell in love with them on that trip. I loved how many colors they came in and I loved that they were named for the fact that you could snap them like dragon's mouths. They continue to be one of my favorite flowers ever.

Trumpet vine. I can remember walking around my block as a kid and walking past this telephone pole that had a huge, dark green vine with flaming orange-red flowers on it. It caught my attention every time and I finally looked it up or asked what it was called.

Vetch. Sometime in my late childhood or teen years, I began to notice vast amounts of purple flowers that grew everywhere around my town in June, when the weather was hot. I asked my grandparents what they were and they told me it was vetch. Unfortunate name, I thought, but what a beautiful color! And the hills were literally covered in them. It was a stunning display on the usually-brown hills of the high desert where I grew up.

The flowers I've listed pretty much stuck with me as my favorites through high school, and I didn't really collect any new favorites until sometime during college.

Lilies. I didn't discover these beauties until one day I was conversing on IM with a friend about our favorite flowers. He mentioned lilies to me and sent me a ton of pictures of lilies of all colors. Before then, I think I thought they only came in white. After that conversation I paid more attention to lilies and discovered they also smell incredibly good. And they do come in a huge variety of colors, at least the Asiatic lilies do. Stargazers are more fragrant,

but less variety in color, and I think I still prefer them over Asiatics simply for the smell. An important note for beginning florists about lilies: When the buds first op

en, remove the stamen (the dark o

range/rust-colored parts). Lily pollen will stain everything it touches, and the stains hasten the ending of the life of the flower. It makes them less fragrant but if you've ever gotten lily pollen on tables or clothing

or your hands, you probably understand the need.

Honeysuckle. I shop at Bath & Body Works sometimes. Once I got a honeysuckle-scented body wash and just from the smell I decided I liked the flower. I didn't actually see real, live honeysuckle until this year, but I knew what it was instantly because of the picture on the Bath & Body Works bottle, and when I bent in to smell it, it smelled just the same as the body wash. They grow in bushes and when I have a garden I think I'll plant one.

Who hasn't lived to see a hydrangea bush? The huge, puffy bunches of 4-petaled florets that come in purples, blues, pinks and white are unmistakable. I first found out about them when I received a beautiful light purple journal from a friend that had pictures of hydrangeas all over it. I think the variety of hues you can find on one bush is just astonishing and can't wait to have one of these myself.

Lavender. Another flower I discovered by way of smell. You can't go looking for aromatherapy without running into this flower's scent. It's famous for having a calming effect. I like that it smells slightly spicy. And of course, it just so happens to come in my favorite color.

There are dozens of other flowers that I love. I think these make my top list, though. Just the names of some other flowers I really, really like and a short description of why: tulips (beautiful array of colors), daffodils (so sunny!), daylilies (a recent favorite), cherry blossoms (delicate pink and equally delicate smell), gladiolas (very showy and lots of colors!). What are your favorite flowers?