Without Hesitation

It's been a bear of a spring. From the dismal and brutal midwinter cold, we turned around to find ourselves in early summer. Never mind what the calendar said. Never mind that I had hardly put a dent in my winter "to do" list.

So the spring season here at the nursery began with a bang. I gave early spring classes. I tried to keep up with late winter propagation, transplanting, weeding, fertilizing, planting. I traveled to plant sales all around the southeast, opened our retail sales here at the nursery, and touched base with our wholesale customers trying to keep up with the sudden change in the weather. It has been exciting. It has been physically and mentally draining. It has been a great relief to my hungry bank accounts.
But as I have been almost too busy to notice, the cold of winter and heat of almost summer have been fighting it out over the mid section of the country. Some of my friends have been in terrible danger. Damage to structures and gardens continues. Hundreds have died in the devastation of hundreds of tornadoes. I have breezed through pictures of ruin with little time for sorrow, gratitude or even guilt.
I've been in and out of town thru the entire month of April, and had a big trip scheduled to visit my daughter in Chapel Hill NC. A longish drive up there, and another of the terrible storms thru most of the next day gave me some time to decompress a bit. I spent some time reading, and even a few extra hours asleep. Katie and I went out to a special dinner at the Saxapahaw General Store and spent time talking and laughing in the luxury of time we have not had together in years.

The next day, I had scheduled a visit to the Keith Arboretum (http://www.keitharboretum.org) . Dr Keith has been collecting plants from all over the world since the early 1970s. From humble beginnings, it has grown to over 4000 labeled woody species on 25 acres. I stopped at Trader Joe's for some great cheddar cheese and crusty bread for a picnic. The storms had cleared out and left blue sky and fresh breezes. And I had most of the day to wander the Arboretum alone.

Calocedrus decurrens

Cinnamomum chenkangeinsis

big and small conifers

Lithocarpus chinensis

Cercis canadensis 'Ace of Hearts'

Calycanthus floridus 'Athens'

Calycanthus floridus

cicada shells on Schizophragma

Juniperus rigida 'Pendula' fruit

conifer glory

Pterostyrax hispida

Pinus bungeana bark

Picea cone

Sinocalycanthus 'Venus'?

Sinocalycanthus 'Hartledge Wine'?

Tsuga chinensis

Viburnum dilatatum

Styrax

I started up the hill at the new dwarf conifer beds, photographing, taking notes, and running from one plant grouping to the next. I worked my way down the hill in the same manner, filling my camera and my notepad.

new dwarf conifer bed

After a while of frantic note and picture taking, I was getting tired and overwhelmed. Try as I might, I could not guess even genus much less species on most of the plants. I saw flowers I had never seen before on trees whose leaves seemed maybe familiar, but whose names did not. So much to see, so much more to learn.

Koi pond

I was also getting hungry, so I headed back to the truck to grab my ploughman's lunch. I walked across the driveway to the chairs by the pond and sat down in the shade to eat and watch the koi. I sat quietly, mesmerized by the huge lazy fish. The plantings around the pond gently caught my attention one by one, both out in the distance and again in the pond's reflection. It was an "Ah ha!" moment....a break in the frenzy that allowed me to really appreciate what I had in front of me.

Variegated Dogwood witches broom

After a while, I got up and went back to the truck. I put away my lunch, but also my notebook. I kept my camera just in case, but got out my earphones for listening to music. I went back out into the collection to see, not look. I walked to the tune of country songs. I strolled for hours more, gazing at the foliage contrasts, the dwarfs among giants, the fabulous colors, the amazing diversity of flower structures, a witches broom in a Dogwood, the shells of cicadas. It wasn't a day to learn everything. It was a day to enjoy.
I picked Katie up at work, and we went to a a friend's cut flower farm for a fun, and funny afternoon. WE laughed and looked and after a while we ate. It was the end of a fabulous day, with another planned for the next day. We got up the next morning, took a walk, got dressed and headed to Richmond VA to hear Mary Oliver read her poetry at St Stephen's Church.

St Stephen's Church

You have seen lines from Mary Oliver if you've read any of the blogs here. She is an amazingly gifted poet, and a champion of the beauty and majesty of the natural world. She also champions human life, and the gift of understanding. Her words are marks on a ruler by which we should all measure ourselves. This was an opportunity for my big girl and I to share one of our heroes as she spoke to us; a bonding moment for mother and child; a memory for the ages. It was all that. And it was more. She made us laugh. She made us smile. She made us wonder. And with one poem, she laid out before me the way to understand the months of spring, my days in North Carolina, my hours in the Arboretum, the minutes of the reading, that first instant with my first child.

 Don't Hesitate

Mary Oliver
 
If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don't hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that's often the
case. Anyway, whatever it is, don't be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

Sensational

Yesterday was a day for the senses. It started out routinely with early grocery shopping and a walk in morning air that was still cool but warming quickly. By the time I was laughing out loud with Click and Clack it was warm enough for shorts and a t shirt. As I worked, new spring smells reminded me it was time to take more pictures....Loropetalum chinense is deliciously sweet, while the fragrant Viburnums can be spicy and aromatic.

I had some plant unpacking to do from our last sale, and I was even a little sweaty by the time I had finished hauling plants here and there to put them back in their places.Abies pindrow      I could feel the tingle of spring sun on newly exposed winter white legs and arms. This is what I had been daydreaming about all the long cold winter. Feels so good.



After some followup transplanting and rearranging,Pinus strobus 'Biltmore Blue'        I was getting tired, and tired of being hot (be careful what you wish for), so I stopped to check out my new vegetable raised beds. Since the weather turned warm weeks ago, the early spring veggies have been going to town. I had some purple seed potatoes to put in, so I dug around into that rich composted soil to set them alongside the red skinned and Yukon Golds.  I don't know about sustainable, organic, or green......but I do know that there are small daily pleasures in watching plants grow. I do this every day in the nursery, and often write about it. But the incremental gratification of producing your own food crops is a little different, and very special. I recommend that everyone go out and buy a packet of lettuce to sow, or some tomato plants after April 15th to put in pots. Get your kids involved, or the grand kids. They will remember the cool soil in their hands; the hot sun on their necks; the warm smile on your face; and finally the taste of independence, proficiency, and pride in that little green harvest.

In addition to that, March 19, 2011 was the day of the Moon perigee....the point in the moon's elliptical orbit when the moon comes closest to the earth. Since I was fixing up the retail area for our new season next week, I thought it might be fun to christen the new firepit while watching the full moon rise. We invited some friends over to picnic, talk plants and enjoy the moonlight. The air remained warm after the sunset, but the warmth of the fire was welcomed anyway. The big-headed cream colored moon rose over a cloud bank to the east, while to the north large thunderhead clouds flashed white and gold. Wow! What a show!! And certainly one we would have missed while inside just waiting for the moon to come in to window view.


All that would have been a full day. We were pleased with the new firepit, the visit with our friends, the moon and cloud show. I was tired by then, and headed to bed, with a final glimpse of that moon shining through the window as I closed my eyes. But around midnight I woke up to the most remarkable noise. One lone Mockingbird was singing for all the world outside the window. I thought it must have been the confusing light from the big full moon, but looked around this morning to find this information from www.birdwatching.com:

"The Northern Mockingbird is a world-famous singer...... The male mockingbird sings a medley of songs belonging to other birds, repeating each phrase several times before moving on to the next. Unlike most songbirds, which learn their songs before they're a year old, a mockingbird continues to expand his repertoire all his life. Some include the sounds of people whistling, frogs croaking, and doorbells ringing.

Although all adult male mockingbirds sing during the day, only a bachelor sings at night. He stops doing that as soon as he wins a mate. (This)..... was a love song."

Tired and sore from a full day of work I am just easing into, and still stinging from sunpinked cheeks, I lean back into the song of this winged Don Juan. He shares all his pickup lines, and all the snippets of lines he's picked up from other birds. He keeps at it over and over,phrase after phrase,  hour after hour, till near dawn. Then he is gone, maybe a bachelor no more. 

e.e. cummings

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

The Gift of Sight

I took a mental health day yesterday. The treatment was not so much for my brain as for my soul. I went to see the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Booth Museum, and stepped out of my daily life, and into the magnificence of the natural world on a grand scale. “Both the grand and the intimate aspects of nature can be revealed in the expressive photograph. Both can stir enduring affirmations and discoveries, and can surely help the spectator in his search for identification with the vast world of natural beauty and the wonder surrounding him.” This quote from Adams scratches the surface of what his photographs can do, and it is very hard for me to phrase it more completely. At once, he reveals intimate detail, and places it in the cosmic scheme.

Winter Sunrise Sierra Nevada 1944

The viewer is both humbled by the grandeur of the scenes, and also invited to be a part of the moment.

Oak Tree Sunset City

Dunes

Better writers than I can probably explain why his black and white photography is so effective. I can only say that without all the color to "distract" us, and with the exceptional workmanship in the print development, Adams gives us insight into the physical world, and a peek at what must be the more intimate and underlying constructs of the universe. Patterns of light and line are what human brains use to organize our individual worlds. But Adams has captured the essence of line and light as though to show all viewers the elements of the universe that we are a part of, and that are a part of us. As it turns out, that melding with the universe is very soothing, and as my friend Barbie pointed out, the room full of photographs was itself warm and quieting.


When we entered the exhibit, the first panel of introduction talked about Adams' love of the natural world, especially the Sierra Nevada. He was introduced to the Yosemite Valley on a family trip when he was 14. " The first impression of the Valley-white water, azaleas, cool fir caverns, tall pines, and solid oaks, cliffs rising to undreamed-of heights....was a culmination of experience so intense as to be almost painful. From that day in 1916, my life has been colored and modulated by the great earth-gesture of the Sierra". 
What a modest, mature  and marvelous description of a lifelong journey to the edges of the earth, and into the crevices of his own psyche.

Today I am back at work. I am taking his suggestion: "Simply look with perceptive eyes at the world about you, and trust to your own reactions and convictions. Ask yourself: "Does this subject move me to feel, think and dream? Can I visualize a print - my own personal statement of what I feel and want to convey - from the subject before me? "  
                                  and following him to the end of the skyline.

Valentine's Day

I got the gift of a gorgeous warm day today, and I have savored it more than a box of chocolates. I always enjoy reminders that spring will be here soon, and this winter, I have needed them.

I'm offering classes at the nursery this spring. I want to get gardeners out here. I want to show them what I love about this dirty work. But mostly I just like to talk about plants. Yesterday was the first class..."The Garden In Winter". As much as I dislike the winter weather that keeps me indoors, I do love the plants that show off in that "off" season. So...before spring sneaks up on me, I thought I might just throw out some names of the best of winter interest plants. It will give me the chance to continue talking about them
.Helleborus x 'Pink Lady'

Helleborus foetidus




Ilex vomitoria 'Virginia Dare



Jasminum nudiflorum


Mahonia x 'Winter Sun' STILL flowering

Cyclamen hederifolium Viburnum

Prunus mume

Hope you liked this little delicious Valentine's Day bite out of my winter garden. It is just a touch of what's out there, but you get the idea....If there is a special person in your life, or even a whole handful of special people, think about giving one of these very special plants on Valentine's Day. Your friend will enjoy it every Valentine's Day ever after. And when it turns cold and gray again, as it surely will, don't forget:

"The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size."

- Gertrude S. Wister

What a Difference a Snow Makes

I have been briefly interrupted from my green movement investigations. In fact, my whole winter existence has been interrupted by an uncharacteristically heavy and persistent snow. I was stuck outside for two days taking down shade cloth and erecting supports for coldframes before the 6" we got. Then I have been stuck inside for a week doing everything from YouTube surfing to year end taxes (yes... I WAS desperate). Now we have rain on top of that, so there's still no working in the garden.


We did not lose any coldframes this time. The ice and freezing rain that followed made things slick, but not broken. So I'm sitting here thinking that, as bad weather goes, this snow event wasn't bad at all.
As it turns out, it was actually very good for all my plants.
You see, snow is both crystallized frozen water and molecules from the air such as sulphur and nitrogen. In other words, snow serves as something like liquid feed for plants.

In spite of feeling like snow and freezing rain make all the plants too cold or too wet, both conditions act as insulators for plants from really cold temperatures. You've probably heard of orange groves in Florida turning on the sprinklers when they are about to experience a big freeze. The ice that surrounds that tropical fruit is 32 degrees but no lower than 32, so it effectively keeps the inside of the fruit from freezing. It works the same way even in hardy plants, and is especially effective when the "Arctic Express" winds come blasting out of the north with temperatures in the teens or below. Smaller twigs on deciduous trees and many of the leaves on broadleaf evergreens can be spared the dessication that is common with fierce and cold winds.

In addition, the agonizingly slow melting is just perfect for seepage into all the right spots in the garden, and down down down to the water table below, leaving it's bounty as it slowly makes it's way. In the Southeast, we are rarely blessed with the equivalent fine rain or mist that would offer the same effect.
I think I need to retract my whining complaints about the last snowy week. All things considered, it was pretty good.

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a Hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

Robert Frost