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Garden journal entry |
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| April 23, 2012. The double take. You think you spot a plant with a very interesting flower: it's a different color than usual, or much smaller, or appears at the wrong time of year. Only upon closer inspection is it obvious that the flower belongs to a different plant, which has sneakily commingled with its more obvious neighbor to a surprising effect. Some gardeners specialize in making these things happen on purpose: they grow clematis vines into shrubs to make it seem like the shrubs are in glorious outerworldly bloom when the clematis flowers open, or they painstakingly ensure that neighboring plants in the border mingle and combine well. As for me, any double takes occur by accident – usually a happy accident. In my old age, I may become better at planning how my garden unfolds through the seasons, but for now I'm content to tuck plants into pockets where I hope they will do well, without much regard for how they'll look with their neighbors. Yesterday's double take came courtesy of a few flowers of candytuft, several stems of which had interloped with a nicely mounded germander (which blooms in a shade of lavender or purple, never white). Hardly spectacular, but worth a getting up close and personal with the combination, and made me chuckle. |
Last modified:
September 09, 2009
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