This year’s Alabama winter was filled with record cold temperatures, but the staff at Rose Bud Flowers and Gifts are celebrating today. After all, it is the first official day of spring! One of the best rewards for enduring these last few months is the beautiful blooms of flowers that are starting to show up everywhere you look.

With these vivid colors and sweet scents of spring, we are once again reminded what a beautiful world we live in, and how something as simple as a flower can completely change our mood and put a smile on our face.

Everyone has a favorite flower, but some of the most beautiful and most loved flowers grow in the spring.

Daffodils

These bright flowers are traditionally yellow, and are among the first flowers to appear each spring. The daffodil is also known as jonquil, paper white and narcissus. The latter is derived from Greek mythology where a young man named Narcissus was so obsessed with his own reflection that the gods turned him into a flower.

Tulips

These tall slender flowers are another popular reminder of spring. Appearing in a wide spectrum of colors, tulips were once so highly prized that in the 17th century they were known to be traded for livestock. This edible flower was also eaten by people in the Netherlands during WWII when food supplies became scarce.

Hyacinth

Another sure sign that spring is right around the corner is the lovely hyacinth. This intensely-fragrant flower gives off an aroma that practically screams: “springtime!” In addition to their distinctive springtime smell, hyacinths are prized for their wide range of colors including red, blue, pink, white, violet and yellow.  According to western literature, hyacinths are known to symbolize rebirth, an idea synonymous with spring.

Flowers represent different things to different people, but one thing we can all agree on is that flowers are an undeniable sign of spring!