Flowers in Bloom

Flowers are seasonal - at least I realized recently. Back in Bulacan, I didnt really pay attention to when flowers like bougainvilla or gumamela or sampaguita blooms because it feels like they're there all the time. I guess when you're living in a tropical country blessed with so many colorful and different flora species you easily take the colors and their intruiging smell for granted.

But in a 4 season country such as Japan, people seem to be really knowledgeable of which flowers bloom in which season. For instance, I have learned that tulips grow in full bloom in the early days of April.

This would mean that you can buy bouquets of tulips at a cheap price around the same time. You really dont need to memorize all of them because its easy to guess based on sale items at flower shops. Most times of the year, flowers in vases stay fresh longer, and so I set aside 197 yen each week to get fresh ones. Sometimes I wish though that I could just harvest some from the nearby flowerbox owned by our town's fire department. But that would be a shame isn't it..