What plant or plants make you smile?

What plant or plants make you smile?

I smile when I see my mealy blue sage.

I smile because it is a native plant growing among the tall grasses that have invaded my property.

Johnny Jump-Ups. They are our first flowers in spring, and they are such tough and cheerful little dudes, popping up in places where nothing else wants to grow.

Similarly, for me it always seems to be the unexpected native volunteers that just show up: the jack-in-the-pulpit, jewelweed with its orange flowers, the unexpected sassafras sapling grove, some sneezeweed that just popped up in the pasture, the little group of 7 pawpaw saplings that I just discovered peeking up out of that annoying patch of Japanese stiltgrass.

Mine's my old Bramley apple. It looks half-dead for about six months of the year and then suddenly it's covered in blossom and I can't help it.