Whispers of Now
by James Duquette
A fresh-cut bundle of spring blooms at Legacy.
Photo by Ethan Roe
My mother has a tendency to buy the LEGO(r) flower kits that pop up at places like Costco. It’s something of an inside joke in my family–my brother and I grew up obsessed with building LEGO kits and Mom tends to have difficulty keeping real plants alive. So the prospect of LEGO flowers is both amusing and sentimental now that my brother and I are grown.
It was an odd combination of something new and not at all unusual when I walked into my living room the other day to find the fresh flowers my mother had recently bought withering, with petals dropping on the floor. As I scooped down to pick them up, I was confused. She’d just gotten her first bouquet from the flower farm where I now work. What had she done? Weren’t our flowers supposed to last much longer?
Turns out, it doesn’t matter how long a flower can possibly last if you don’t care for it properly. My mother hadn’t remembered to read the care card we provided, and hadn’t known that she was supposed to change the water every few days.
Legacy’s flowers do last longer than the commercial flowers you’d get from places like supermarkets. That’s because we grow them right here in Leesburg, rather than ship them in from other countries. And also because we put an enormous amount of research and effort into caring for them as they grow. Even after months on the farm, I still don’t fully grasp the amount of foresight and care our floral staff puts into them - every day I find out something new that we’ve implemented to help them grow and sustain after being cut for delivery.
To grow flowers is to spend time on something that will not last. It is the beauty of a moment; the whisper of now.
And to take care of any living thing is to be in the “now” of life. Pets last a fraction of a human lifespan–yet we love and care for them deeply anyway. In part because of this impermanence, we are compelled to care for them as best we can, knowing that time will eventually have its due.
Our bodies, our careers, our hobbies, our relationships—all grow and change, evolve and resolve as they move through time. The people in our lives may not be in our lives forever. Maybe we’ll move someplace far, maybe we’ll fall out of touch, maybe their time or ours will come. The fleeting nature of the moments makes these relationships all the more beautiful.
In truth, the beauty in a flower is like the time of a person you love–radiant, but impermanent. Just as we would care for a flower, we need to care for our busy lives, our relationships and our dreams. We need to find the beauty in whispers of now.
Despite a long and questionable history in caring for live flowers, when I started my new job at Legacy Farms, my mom bought a flower subscription so she could pick up a fresh bouquet each week anyway. She put our gorgeous real flowers on the mantle right next to the funny LEGO flowers.
Bunches of weekly subscriber bouquets, like those purchased by James’ mom.
She did this not only because she believes in supporting me in my new job, but also because for her the flowers are an act of deep care, marking a moment in time…an act of acknowledging the progress I’ve made and the work I’m doing. Just as the LEGO flowers are a symbol of our past, the new, real flowers are a symbol of our present, of the love and care that we have. Now that she’s read the info card, she’s planning to care for the flowers more deeply. Because she wants them to last as long as they can.
———
Thank you for reading! When you support Legacy Farms through donations and floral purchases, you nurture all of our apprentices' work and growth...our gardeners, aspiring photographers and entrepreneurs, and writers like James! Each program we offer and every flower we grow is part of something bigger.
Legacy Farms provides vocational training and meaningful work experience for neurodivergent young adults — building pathways to confidence, independence, and community connection.