Feb 5: Winter Flowers

South Florida is a place that offers hope. Perpetual sunshine, endless summer. And winter flowers. If you're feeling down, all you need to do is look around. As a northern transplant, I can't seem to lose my amazement at year round flowers. Flowers crowding outdoor beds, flowers clustering on bushes, flowers filling the branches of trees. In the dead of winter. To my eye, there's something slightly suggestive of Eden in a community where trees blossom in February. Not to get carried away here - nowhere is a perfect paradise, at least nowhere I've been. But when I look at the calendar and then look out my window, it can feel kind of surreal. This is especially true since I moved into my new condo in Dania Beach. Just beyond my patio, a grand old tree is loaded with delicate purple flowers. But the really amazing thing is that it's been in blossom since October.

I've learned that I have something called a Hong Kong Orchid tree in my backyard. It seems to be in bloom for about half of the year. This particular tree is perhaps 40 feet tall and around 20 feet across, a dense lacework of delicate branches and thick stems holding thousands of broad, heart-shaped leaves.

And those purple blossoms. I have no idea how many but they must number in the hundreds anyway. The Hong Kong Orchid tree turns color slowly, first in little pastel buds that pop out here and there. As the weeks pass, the buds increase noticeably and then start to open as the stately green tree becomes intensely purple - a natural vase providing water and nutrients for a growing bouquet of flowers. This season around, the tree began blooming about mid-October at the time some family members came to visit me. Now, in early February, the flowers are slowly fading but still there, still pretty, still a hopeful sign during a difficult winter for many people. The flowers will be gone soon. But before too long, the cycle will repeat itself all over again. In 2008, the tree bloomed twice if I recall correctly so we'll see what happens this year. But my point really is just this: that South Florida is a blossoming, bountiful place that can remind us all to look beyond our immediate problems. Things are going to be all right. Somewhere in our country, at this very moment, it's still summer. Flowers are hanging from trees and strawberries are growing plump and red and the sun is shining most of the time. If you can come for a visit, you'll see what I mean. If you can't right now, maybe just keep us in mind from time to time. Because if nothing else, it's sort of nice simply to remember we're here.