Spring flowers

 This last weekend I had the opportunity to do flowers for a special church meeting we had with Elder Quintin L. Cook, one of our church's 12 Apostles.  I felt honored and nervous to be asked, but also very excited.  I love flowers, and I love spring.  It was the week before St. Patrick's Day, so I immediately thought of Bells of Ireland, and calla lilies, and then decided to throw some pink in with the white and green.  I visited the San Francisco Flower Market for the very first time to get the flowers.

I was so excited when I arrived there to find they had flowering quince.  It is my very favorite spring flower!  I discovered it when we were living in Citrus Heights.  It is the very first thing to bloom in spring. Bright coral, pink or white flowers on long dark stems fill in with green leaves as the blossoms drop.  The rest of the year it masquerades as an ordinary shrub.  But in the final cold days of winter it fills my heart with joy.  I actually did a lot of research, visiting nurseries and websites, trying to figure out what plant it was because I needed it to be part of my life. 

 I was also quite enamored of the fresh curly willow for these arrangements as well. 

This big arrangement for the main pulpit gave me a lot of trouble.  I just could not find the right container for it.  I spent half of Saturday running around trying to find something.  I finally settled for a cute trash can!

 Bells and quince and willows and callas and asters and tulips and hydrangeas.

I spent most of the meeting thinking, "I should have made that thing bigger.  It seemed so huge at home."  And then I brought it home and put it on the table in my entry and every time I walk past it I think, "That thing is enormous!"

Finally, I found these lovely hydrangeas I had never seen before.  They are called Angel's Parasol and have layers of delicate little blossoms.  Lovely.