With as beautiful as the weather has been this past week, it’s hard to believe that just a few weeks ago it was dreary and raining. Yet at the end of both weekends, I had accomplished the same goal: planting and transplanting my flowers.

Yes, you read correctly. As the rain started coming down a couple weeks ago, I was out in my front yard planting my Sub Zero pansies. After listening to the Flowerland Show that morning, I kind of diddle around till I noticed it was starting to cloud up. Normally I would have found something else to do inside where it was dry. But my daughter and I had bought our pansies (she picked out blue ones – her favorite color – while I picked out purple pansies) a week prior and George Lessens was predicting cold temps and frost advisories. They need to get in the ground.

My daughter (she wanted to “help”) and I had just decided on our “color scheme,” cleaned out the flowerbed and planted our first pansy when it started to rain. My “helper” wasn’t crazy about this getting rained on thing so she went back in the house and hung out with daddy. Me? I kept going; I was on a mission to get those pansies planted.

While my husband and probably most of my neighbors thought I was nuts, my friends at Flowerland tell me planting flowers in the rain can actually help your plants get established and take root. (When I say rain, I’m not talking thunder and lightning or sheets of rain.) Unfortunately, we’ve all conditioned ourselves to think that it has to be sunny and “the right temperature” in order to plant things. While it may be dryer and more comfortable, I guess planting in “perfect weather” isn’t that necessary because my pansies look great. And because they are cold tolerant, they should survive the winter and come back next spring with my tulips.

Until next time…Get outside and enjoy this most excellent gardening weather!

Mary Gold