The geraniums in my window box are being petty.

Frankly, I am taken aback by their sour attitude and complete lack of blossoms. The geraniums I have known in the past have always been fun-loving, bloom a minute kinds of plants, but the gang sulking in my flower box are definitely of another ilk.

Perhaps it's because we got off on the wrong foot. Okay, there was that one time right after I bought them when I forgot to water them, they dried out completely and wilted right over.

Well, actually, that happened twice.

But see, the problem was that they were in insanely tiny pots and completely root bound.

They should have said something.

Besides, that was nearly a month ago.

Oh, and I suppose they'd want to bring up the fact that I left them outside during a freak May snowstorm. Well, that was an accident, too. I mean, even we Canuckians don't look for snow in May for heaven's sakes. Haven't these plants ever heard the phrase "Let bygones be bygones"?

Sheesh, I'm telling you, the attitude I'm getting ...

These last two days have been the first sunshine we've had in forever. All that rain has meant that the moisture loving plants in my gardens have been going mental with happiness.

Take a look at my blue hosta.

I know.

You want to start a cult in their honour, which I think is perfectly understandable and acceptable and shows just how perceptive my three loyal readers are.

But remember, No Vats of Purple Kool-Aid.

(That would be today's Obscure Joke About A Cult Mass Suicide and since almost all of my three loyal readers were born after this happened, they have no idea what I'm talking about.)

Zygotes. I'm surrounded by zygotes, I tell you.

Moving right along, my clematis is also a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Oh, and my iris. My iris are so wonderful this year that I'm thinking about getting them bronzed.

And then it all comes crashing down when I turn and look at my lupins.

For those of you keeping score, it's Lupins 15, Marn 0.

As my three loyal readers may recall, for years and years I've been growing a big drift of lupins behind my pond. Every other year or so I go out and spend my hard-earned money on a package of mixed Russel Hybrid Lupin seeds, a packet which boldly displays white, yellow, and red lupins along with the far more common pink and blue.

I scarify the seeds, germinate them between paper towels, plant them out by my pond. I tenderly nurse the babies through their first summer and wait with bated breath each following spring hoping against hope that I will get the white, the red or dare I dream ... the yellow spires for which I've yearned for years and years.

I went through the ritual last year and for my efforts I got:

Yep, that's right.

MORE pink and purple lupins.

Sometimes it's hard not to be bitter, eh.

--Marn