Where flowers bloom so does hope.

A flower's fragrance declares to all the world that it is fertile, available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing with nectar. Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor, life-force, all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth. We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages, we feel young and nubile in a world aflame with desire.-

Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses, 1990, p. 13



Are we, finally, speaking of nature or culture whenwe speak of a rose (nature), that has been bred (culture)so that its blossoms (nature) make men imagine (culture) the sex of women (nature)?It may be this sort of confusion that we need more of.-

Michael Pollan, Second Nature, 1991



The Earth Laughs in Flowers



I will be the gladdest thing under the sun!I will touch a hundred flowersAnd not pick one.-

Edna St. Vincent Millay