New Year's Eve in Eden


 
 
Enjoying the final calendar day at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania whetted my appetite for March when the Philadelphia Flower Show is due to arrive. Meandering the Garden’s conservatory and its connecting buildings of flora, oxidized my eyes as I visually breathed in beauty, digesting it to energize my novel in progress.

A florist’s business is key to my book, and may wind up taking on a character role in itself. Those botanical displays I ogled at Longwood tripped ideas to realistically depict the fictitious shop’s setting. 



A living wreath made of succulents might advertise a southwestern holiday take for the florist shop’s non-traditional customer who is nostalgic for warmer weather. That unorthodox item could also attract the upscale clientele who walk into Black-Eyed Sioux’s Florist Shop in my fictional city neighborhood that is making a turn for the better.
 
 
My main character, Aubrie, might notice powder puff trees on a poster that Sioux has hung in the back of the shop. Those trees will probably ignite Aubrie’s childhood love of stories by bringing to mind “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss with its fuzzy Truffula Trees. Maybe the real blooming tufts are what inspired Theodore Geisel’s creativity.

Of course, to educate Aubrie in botany, I must educate myself. Longwood and PFS are fun ways to do this. I’m sure the many visitors to these gardening extravaganzas, like myself, bring their individual imaginations to these heavenly visions, and go home inspired too.
 


    

 

CONVERSATION

5 comments:

  1. Great post, it was fun being your host.

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  2. I enjoyed learning how Longwood Gardens inspires your writing.

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  3. This is beautifully written. Nicely done. I look forward to reading the next installment of "Aubrey" with these new settings.

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