Flowers for Mom

This weekend, I shopped at the University District farmers’ market on Saturday, rather than at the Ballard market today. As always this time of year, the flowers were magnificent, though as it has been a cool spring, the poppies, peonies and roses that often make their first appearances on Mother’s Day weekend were absent. And as it was the day before Mother’s Day, rather than the day itself, I saw few young children bearing paper-wrapped bouquets through the market.

Did you know that Anna Jarvis, who founded Mother’s Day 100 years ago, wouldn’t have approved of giving these gorgeous flowers (or candy, or greeting cards) on Mother’s Day? She thought that we should give our mothers white carnations, which she felt signified the purity of a mother’s love. While a mother’s love is a wonderful thing, I don’t much like carnations, and, more importantly, neither does my mother. I’d rather give her flowers she loves than someone else’s idea of the appropriate symbol for her love.

As always, I wish that I could hand-deliver these flowers to my mother, and to my grandmother and my sister.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.
Happy Mother’s Day, Grandmama. (The violas are especially for you.)
Happy Mother’s Day, Melanie.
I love you all so much.

And to all the mothers I know in the blogosphere, Happy Mother’s Day. There’s a tulip here for you. (I hope you weren’t expecting a white carnation.)