Monday, March 19, 2007

A mother-daughter wedding disagreement

My mother thinks we're crazy.
We decided awhile ago that we could grow our own wedding flowers.
After all, someone has to grow the flowers. Why not us?
See, we know we want sunflowers.
My mother asks, incredulously, "Sunflowers?! You mean the giant flowers that sunflower seeds come from?"
Well, yes. Sort of. See, there are lots of different kinds of sunflowers. Cultivars, as they are known in the garden world. My mother, an avid garderner, should know this.
I chose cultivars that are meant for cutting, I explained.
Pollen-less, so they won't stain anything.
Small, so they will look good in a boquet. (See picture to the left.)
And several different shades of yellow, orange, and red- to be very cheerful.
Still, all she can imagine is me holding flowers that are bigger than me, leaving a trail of sunflower seeds down the aisle.
She says," Well, maybe you can have a florist just do your boquet?"
I tell her, "Mom, we're out of money. Florists cost money. If we have no money, it stands to reason that we cannot have a florist."
She sighs.
I tell her, "Sunflowers are very, very easy to grow."
She asks, "But what if the flowers aren't blooming at the right time?"
I tell her my plan: "Mom, I have four people who are going to all grow sunflowers. I have a calendar mapped out when we have to plant each variety so they are blooming for the wedding. I have enough seeds so we can plant three batches, three weeks apart of each kind of seed, so that even if we are off a few weeks on blooms, we have backup. I think I have this planned pretty well."
She says, "But what happens if something goes wrong?"
I sigh.
If something goes wrong, we'll go to the farmer's market and get flowers there. They'll be beautiful, whatever they are. All flowers are pretty to me.
We agree to not talk about it anymore.
Until next time.
I sigh again.

1 comment:

Dana Gillin said...

Hey, there. I love this idea. I just bought a bunch of seeds and would like to grow some of my own flowers for my wedding, too, but am afraid I'll run out of time. Also, I should admit, I've never actually grown a flower garden before... So maybe a florist for me wouldn't be a bad idea, but if you can do it, I say go girl! Good luck!

--Dana, another bride