It's Friday afternoon at 4:30 pm and boy am I draggin'! Three newsletter deadlines in four days. Whew!! Glad that's over.
But now I owe the company one more half hour (at least) of some kind of productivity and my mind is kind of like yesterday's wadded up newspaper.
When I get like this, there's one surefire way I know to reenergize my brain cells: looking at pansies. Preferably live pansies. But pictures of pansies will do in a pinch.
Pansies. I love 'em!
They're so simple, so plucky, so resilient. Here it is nearly mid-September and there's a couple of survivors from last March's planting still hanging on in my annual bed. They come in a practically infinite palette of colors. Most of them have got great names.
Here's my very favorite pansy: Imperial Antique (image courtesy David at Stecks Nursery and Landscaping; check out their beautiful Web site).
I know these antique guys are hard to over winter up here in northern Ohio. But this weekend I will probably go out searching for a greenhouse that will sell me some anyway.
One site I like to keep an eye on is the Ohio State University Extension's Floriculture OnLine. They regularly post the results of their pansy and viola cultivar trials. The 2004/2005 results are up there right now. The ranking tables include links to images of the cultivars they tested. Check out "Icy Blue Sorbet." I gotta get me somma these!!
So I hope you are encouraging your customers to spring for some pansies this fall. You'll be doing them a big big favor by fixing them up with these humble, cheerful companions.
— Lynne Brakeman
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