Note to self: Flowers are a great gambit for getting to the front of a line. At least it worked for me when I joined the queue for coffee Sunday morning in Laurel Canyon.
The man ahead of me took one look at my lovely bouquet of larkspur with a collar of yellow roses and said, "If you have flowers, you've got to go ahead of me." I brought them to say "Happy Sunday" to my friend Lilly.
And before she even saw them, they were getting me special treatment. Awesome! Because the flowers were a complete surprise, Lilly was really pleased.
It was my second floral discovery of the weekend. On Saturday, I decided to buy flowers and make some simple bouquets. Browsing around my local florist, I saw a terrific flower that I'd heard a lot about but never actually seen.
At first I thought it was a wild rose, but it turned out to be lisianthus. It's a little smaller than a rose, has slightly frilly petals and multiple blooms growing from one stem.
Native to Texas and Mexico, it has a bunch of different names: Texas Bluebell, Prairie Gentian, Lira de San Pedro. In the language of flowers, lisianthus symbolizes both an outgoing nature and appreciation.
No matter what you call it, it's an enchanting flower – classically beautiful and slightly exotic. Lisianthus typically comes in white, pink, lavender and purple.
I blended pink lisianthus with white roses, white stock and some white hydrangea I'd bought earlier in the week, topping it off with some foliage called "pitts" that my florist suggested.
In the store, I noticed an exquisite bouquet with a single pink lisianthus bloom, a mauve orchid and a magenta dahlia, set against layers of Casablanca lilies and calla lilies.
Who knows what next weekend will bring?!
Flower Fact of the Day: Why do we go for gold in the garden? Beth Botts, of the Chicago Tribune's Home & Garden section, recently explored the drive to compete in the realm of junipers, succulents, lilies, dahlias and giant pumpkins, et al. Read up at: chicagotribune.com/features/home/chi-garden-competition-0727jul27,0,3337999.story.
