Why Do I Do This?

Forsythia x intermedia 'Beatrix Farrand'
I often ask myself, especially during winter, why I do this nursery stuff; this cold, wet, dirty, grueling work.
If April is the cruelest month, then what is mid-March?


After being colder and wetter and frustrated much longer this winter than most, I came out today to see where we are in the seasonal cycle. It was a break between heavy rains...."mud-luscious and puddle wonderful"...to borrow the perfect phrase from e.e. cummings.


I've been hanging on to the blooms of late winter hoping I could hang on long enough to make it through to spring again.



Daphne odora 'Alba' Cornus mas







Edgeworthia papyrifera



And it's been working! Delicious fragrant flowers, dazzling in the warm golds of the winter sun have kept me going.
It takes a while to get my eyes used to the glare from heavy clouds. It also takes a while to get my brain to focus on the minute steps the world is making towards spring. But today I've been looking closely, and now I am remembering again the best part. There is a tipping point- the day, the hour, the moment when winter's grip loosens, and the rite of spring is just about to begin.

Between yesterday and today, things have changed. Buds are swelling.
Euschaphis japonica


Colors are showing,






The first new shoots of Sedum 'Autumn Joy' turn up leaves
and the brown buds of Hydrangea quercifolia 'Amethyst' have given way to soft hairy new leaves emerging like a flames from a candle.



Seeds I saved and sowed over winter emerge and shed their husk in a two leafed striptease.
Subtle changes in colors now catch my eye; hazy shapes emerge. Needle fingers become tiny cones almost before my eyes.

Cupressus glabra 'Limelight'
Cupressus glabra 'Golden Pillar'







Thuja orientalis 'Beverlyensis'

It's sex, it's mystery, it's magic, it's passion, it's wonder.

Cunninghamia lanceolata 'Samurai'







Pinus thubergii 'Ogon'
 




Picea smithiana

It's rebirth in the primeval forest from which we all enter, and to which we all return. It's happening right here, right now.... new, seductive, unstoppable, ancient.

it's

spring

and

         the

                  goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles

far

and

wee

* In Just- Spring ee cummings

To be a witness to this is to be part of the grand scheme.

And for sure, it's why I do this.