Springtime in Columbia VIDEO: A floral feast

It’s spring! And with the blossoming of all things floral, comes a sense that this may be the best season of the year.

First come the daffodils and Bradford pears in late winter and early spring, then the azaleas, camellias and roses, all unfolding in a riot of colors. So amazing that the humorist Garrison Keillor, visiting in March, called Columbia “the city of perpetual spring.”

In a 2013 poem, The Charleston writer Ellen E. Hyatt wrote of the daffodils, now a memory, “Every stem once an each. Each united in your hand today invites us to believe something here and now might last hereafter.”

Spring blossoms don’t last forever, save perhaps for those ever-blooming Knock Out roses that offer a showy display through summer. So now is the time to soak up the image and fragrance of so many flowers all in one place - and plant some more for summer blooms.

This story was originally published April 24, 2015 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Springtime in Columbia VIDEO: A floral feast."