How did it get to the middle of the month so quickly? I have tried to get some discipline in my life, and jot down a few notes in this space at the beginning of each month. Something has happened since my last entry, when I was rhapsodizing about the erythronium and the trillium. They've peaked and are taking their bows.
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| The view from the same willow bench, four weeks later, bearded iris about to bud, viburnum tomentosum 'Mariesii' loaded with buds |
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| trillium kurabayashii, 4th week |
Oh, duh...the vernal equinox was March 20. It is no wonder that we human beings have celebrated fecundity, birth, fertility, life itself, just then, for ever. Who could doubt that some awesome forces are at work that could cause there to be more light, more warmth and little sprouts and buds to take on a sense of urgency about jumping out of the earth? I have been popping outside (like the plants!) at odd moments, sometimes two or three times a day just to see what's emerging... no time for writing, or washing dishes!
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| Who could not want to dance? Dicentra spectabilis 'Gold Heart' |
One morning while I was waiting for my tea to brew, I stepped out onto the deck, beckoned by a cacophony of birdsong and the promise of wonder. There at my feet the tulips had joined the fluffy ruffles of pansies all mauve and merlot......I stepped from the deck onto the terrace for a closer look at the potager, and tiny white blossoms had begun to punctuate the robust new foliage of the alpine strawberries (fragraria 'mignonette'). Soon the amazing scent of the berries will waft through my head.
Before I could stop, my slippered feet were taking me to the daphne odora that I moved last Fall to the newly reclaimed bed near the old cypress tree. I have been hovering over my two plants because I'd read they don't like to be moved. They are blooming and filling the air with their mesmerizing scent right now. ( Now comes the hard part, once they are spent, will they go on to settle in?)
When I looked up from the daphne and turned to go back inside, I was so near the weeping katsura (cercidiphyllum japonicum), now so elegant and so graceful, I had to take a few more steps to admire the tiny emerging bronze leaves...a subtle reminder, in their infancy, of the glorious caramel scent they will exude at the other end of the season...
I decided not to trek across the dew-laden grass to visit the fruit trees...I was beginning to feel like a possessed old lady, still in her pajamas and slippers, in a trance, beckoned by the garden...
Later that day...
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| Cornus sericea 'aurea', glowing at the top of the iris garden |
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| Pacific Coast Iris |
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| Paris polyphylla, now a small colony! |
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| Omphalodes cappadocia, a delightful addition to the hosta bed |
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| Kali's cherry tree has blossoms! |
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| Hosta 'Queen of the Seas', making an elegant entrance |
My garden group is having a tea today. It will be hard to grab my chapeau and take a quick ramble to experience today's news. I feel like the March (April?) hare..."I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!"
