Tulips
flowers

Tulip Mania

Tulips are an incredibly versatile flower. They can be as simple as you please, plunked into an old bottle or yogurt jar, or they can be the swans of the flower world, long-necked and elegant, turning toward the sun each morning from inside a gilded vase. I bought a few kinds of tulips and offer them here for your consideration. (And I couldn’t resist the Lenten roses and hyacinths for good measure.) Part of being happy is knowing how to […]

Spring Beauties on Americas-Table.com
flowers

Spring Beauties

There’s a delicate pink wildflower called spring beauty, which I used to search for after school while playing in the woods of our farm. I hadn’t seen one in decades, and then yesterday, while walking the dogs in Dumbarton Oaks Park, I was amazed to find a range of them thriving underneath a stand of beech trees. It brought back memories of other spring wildflowers – May apples, dogtooth lilies, wild violets and Jack-in-the-pulpits – tucked into hidden spots beside […]

Valentine Sentiments on America's Table
flowers

Valentine Sentiments

For many years, I collected pieces of silver with monograms and messages on them. Cups, spoons, little silver boxes – the hand engraving and the messages were expressions of love and gratitude that spanned generations. I stopped collecting them years ago, because accumulating things is not so important to me anymore. I think the real value of money is in how you use it to help other people. In the meantime, I still have this nice collection of silver cups. […]