U is for Unexpected

If you're going to enjoy plants, you have to ready for the unexpected. For years my children and I waited every morning at the end of our driveway for the school bus to arrive (more of a school van). It was adorned by some wild looking daffodils, a globe of sedum and a few irises. One day, something unexpected awaited us at the edge of the driveway. The most delicate, beautiful red and yellow flowers. My girls asked me what their name was. Having no idea, I did what moms having been doing since the beginning of time. I made something up!

"They're fairy flowers. See how they look like they could be a skirt a fairy would wear?"

The fairy flowers came back every spring from who knows where, to adorn the edge of our driveway. Until one year they didn't. As suddenly as they arrived, they were gone. No forwarding address.

It took me several years to run across a photo of our fairy flowers: columbine. Armed with the name, I eventually tracked them down at our local Mennonite plant nursery and brought them home. Now my fairy flowers have a place of honor in my side garden and I'm thinking of expanding and adding a few other varieties in memory of all those early school mornings.