Mother’s Day gift.

Professional flowers are expensive to buy for Mother’s day, and the price seems to increase at this time of year.
Even a nice bunch from the supermarket can cost over a tenner.  I therefore liked to give my Mum flowers that would bring her pleasure for longer for Mother’s Day and Easter.  Most parent’s just want a token and don’t expect you to spend a lot on them.  I know I don’t.  I would rather them spend money on my grandson, or themselves.

My Mum loved spring flowers and so I used to either grew bulbs myself for her, or bought a few cheap pots of bulbs that were already starting to flower from supermarkets, and then make up a display in a recycled container.   The container in the picture is one I saw in a garden centre but all it has in it is a primrose and a few grape hyacinth bulbs and a couple of mini daffodils, which where I live cost under £5 the lot.  I have also put them in baskets before and put a waterproof lining in of a carrier bag with compost in and planted the bulbs.  One year I used an old tin bath which I made a display for her outside her window when she was in a home during Covid and I couldn’t see her.  One year when I was broke I used a black bucket for her garden with the handles taken off bought for a pound from a DIY shop, and a nice china tea pot or jug from a charity shop other years.  I have even given her a wooden planter that Mr S made.  Sometimes I would buy her flowering house plants and put them in nice containers for her instead so that her home looked pretty inside.

I found that the display looked nicer if I chose about 3 colours and stuck to them  My Mum liked blue, white and yellow in spring.  The present did not feel like a waste as I would replant the bulbs in her garden for the following year so that she could get pleasure from them every year.  When she died I dug up some of the bulbs before we handed the house over and they are now buried around her grave and so they are the gift that keeps on giving.

It was a win win as not only was my present cheaper, and so I was being frugal, but my Mother knew that I had put thought into it and every year when the bulbs came up she would get weeks of joy.