Ever-blooming Flowers

Super-hardy and tough, these flowers need no water or fertilizer. Constructed of heavy, pre-rusted, 1/2-inch square steel stock, they are made to stand up to the most unforgiving environments.

Even in the scorching heat of the New Mexico summer, our garden is a riot of colorful wildflowers. By midwinter, however, the high desert cold has reduced all to barren sticks. But amid the icy desolation, one spot of color remains. The Ever-blooming Flower.

This cheerful bit of yard art was conceived during an especially long winter, in February, when spring was a month and an eternity away. The question wasn’t how to make a durable flower — easy, “steel” — but instead how to get lasting color. The answer arose when a friend bought a small kiln and began experimenting with fused glass.   Filling the flowers’ centers perfectly, the bright chunks of glass bring back sun-washed memories of summer even on the gloomiest of days.