Pansies Under the Snowbank

I know that there are pansies under the snow in my yard. We’ve had a couple of days of melting and now the leaves and buds are visible. I can’t wait to see the pansies and the early bulbs pushing up. They are the promise of spring. Unseen during the snowy spells, but present, living, and ready to push through with happy blooms.

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I planted extra pansies last fall, in hopes of many blooms this spring. Unfortunately, half of the pansies got crunched when I had workers at my house for a project in November. They didn’t know that the flower bed next to the sidewalk was full of pansies, and the flowers got trampled. Sigh.

I realize my sadness at losing the pansies was out of proportion to my investment in them. The house project cost thousands of times the cost of a pansy, and I can always plant pansies next year. But once they were crushed, it was too late to plant more pansies. Now I won’t have pansies peeking out from under the snow next to the sidewalk. The damage was done.

Gardening is an interesting mix of present joy and past investment. Seeing the buds pushing through the snow gave me joy today. But that joy came because of my investment of time, energy and a little money last fall, when I planted a flat of pansies. And the investment is not without risk, since plants can succumb to drought, deep freezes, pests, trampling feet or any number of hazards. But as a gardener, I still invest, I still hope, all for the joy of the flower pushing through – reflecting hope.

---