Pansies Signal the "Real" First Day of Spring in Salem

Many of our neighbors carefully watch for the day we plant the first annuals in our planter boxes each year, knowing that this act really officially declares that SPRING has arrived in Salem, Massachusetts.

Well, today was the day, and here are the photos to show it:

This year we chose a "new" color for the pansies.  They have been ivory in color for as long as any of us can remember, and certainly for the six years of this blog, which is the record that we have available to us.  How do you like this lovely muted orange color pansy?

As it seems usual, we wound up with a "volunteer" plant again this year, or should I call it a rebel?  In any case, this one plant seems to have snuck in with the rest.  I love this!

Tim Cheney headed up the team of maintenance department workers who pulled out all the evergreen bows, and replaced them with our first planting of the year.

Miguel Lozano works in many departments of the hotel -- he is always happy to help us out wherever we need him, and today it was in maintenance to help with the pansy planting.

Mike Tomlinson stopped his hard work to pose for me.  As you can see, today was a really windy day, making this a not-so-easy job for the guys.  The dirt was flying everywhere!

I hope you enjoy checking out the Hawthorne Hotel on Salem's real first day of spring!

Juli