The Botanical Garden is not the only place in Warsaw where flowers are blooming. Armies of city workers have been out planting millions of pansies over the past couple of weeks. Bulbs—daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips—are also popping up all over town.

Truthfully, it is still pretty cold and gray most days here. And Warsaw is a gray city. So, these struggling little patches of color are most welcome!

Landscaping technique here is sort of the opposite of what I am used to at home. In Nashville, or in the Washington, DC area, only the hardiest perennials can take the full sun. We plant delicate annuals like pansies in the shade. Here, they are planted where they can take full advantage of what sunshine there is to be had. Bulbs are about six weeks behind where they would be in the DC area: we saw daffodils for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and crocuses a couple of weeks before that.

Gardening is different here. It’s very…orderly. Pansies are planted in uniform rows. I actually saw some guys using string to mark them out the other day. Most flowerbeds are in geometric shapes, often confined by neatly trimmed boxwood hedges.

It’s a very old-fashioned, Continental style of gardening, and honestly, not to my taste. I’ll take a riotous English border, or a bee-friendly wildflower patch, thanks. But flowers are flowers, and I do appreciate the effort Warsaw puts into brightening up the place!