Focus on Flowers

In 1785 William Cowper wrote:Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too. Unconscious of a less propitious clime There blooms exotic beauty, warm and snug While winds whistle and the snows descend.In 1974 Maya Angelou said, "Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says ‘I’m going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that’s tough. I’m going to snow anyway’." And there is a Chinese proverb that makes many of us smile:If you would be happy for a day, get drunk. If you would be happy for a week, take a wife. If you would be happy for a month, kill your pig. But if you would be happy all your life, plant a garden.And Jude Patterson wrote, “In winter, when roots and seeds sleep under the crusted snow, the gardener is an artist hatching ideas for the coming season.”  But my personal advice to you in January is to be careful of all of those tempting offers that arrive in catalogs in the mail this month, as well as all of the seductive offers to order plants online. We are all so eager to have flowers on our gardens again, that we are susceptible to all of the plant offers that bombard us. But it really is too early to start ordering plants—January is too soon!—so try, if possible, to exercise some restraint.

During the middle ages, the Christmas season lasted for 12 days and reached a climax on Jan 6, which is called Twelfth Night.  We often wait, nowadays, until Twelfth Night to take down the Christmas tree and holiday decorations. Once everything is put away the house seems suddenly quite bereft, and we long for something natural and fresh.  January, of course, is a difficult month for garden flowers. Sometimes, however, one can unearth some long stems of ivy in the winter garden. In the summer, I am always trying to pull it out and get rid of it, but I am glad to see any green leaves in winter.  If you ever find any, cut some pieces and hammer the stems and submerge them in a sink of cold water overnight. Next morning, shake the water off and pat them dry with a towel before placing them in a vase.  With this background for an arrangement in place, you may be able to find a few other bits and pieces in the garden, for example, bare branches, berries, Bergenia leaves or even a Christmas rose (Helleborus), to add to the ivy. Otherwise, buy a few blooms to combine with the ivy and rationalize the purchase as absolutely necessary food for the soul.  Buy any color flower but red, as after the holidays red seems passé and our eyes have become tired of it.

Norah Lindsay (1866-1948) lived in the Manor House at Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire, England. She was admired for the way that she combined herbaceous perennials in borders, which were so popular during the Edwardian time in England. In her obituary in 1948 in the London Times it was described how she would trace out a plan for a whole garden in the dirt with the tip of her umbrella. She was known as one of the first amateur, but not quite professional, garden designers who were active in the years before and after World War I.Strongly influenced by Italian gardens, she was famous for her parterres. One that she planned is still maintained by the National Trust in England today. It was a formal planting using low plants and repetition of colors around a central fountain. Clipped yews and a Doric Temple in the distance added to its feeling of formality and structure. Norah Lindsay was born in Ireland but always admired the classical gardens of Florence and Rome. She created large-scale double borders that stretched down hillsides to create breath-taking vistas. Her husband, Harry Lindsay, was a flying hero during World War I, and she was so well-connected that she even advised the Prince of Wales on his gardens at Fort Belvedere. Lindsay was the Grande Dame of gardening in a time when ladies did not have professional careers.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote a poem about the garden at the end of the year. This seems to be an appropriate time to share it with you. A spirit haunts the year’s last hours Dwelling amid these yellowing bowers: To himself he talks: But at eventide, listening earnestly, At his work you may hear him sob and sigh In the walks; Earthward he boweth the heavy stalks Of mouldering flowers: Heavily hangs the broad sunflower Over its grave in the earth so chilly; Heavily hangs the holly hock, Heavily hangs the tiger-lily. The air is damp and hushed and close, As a sick man’s room where he taketh repose An hour before death; My very heart faints and my whole soul grieves At the moist rich smell of the rotting leaves And the breath Of the fading edges of box beneath, And the year’s last rose. Heavily hangs the broad sunflower Over its grave in the earth so chilly; Heavily hangs the hollyhock, Heavily hangs the tiger lily.

Oscar Wilde in The Selfish Giant wrote the following words:  “He did not hate the winter now, for he knew that it was merely the spring asleep, and that the flowers were resting.”  And Anne Bradstreet, who died in 1672, wrote:  “If we had no winter the spring would not be so pleasant.”  Kathleen Norris sounded a little more impatient about winter when she wrote:  “There seems to be so much more winter this year than we need.”  Nancy Hutchens in her book A Garden’s Grace described plants that look good in winter. She said,  “The wheat-colored blooms of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’ add charm to my backyard—one at its entrance and another next to a red-twigged dogwood.” She continued: “…the tall black stalks and round heads of Rudbeckia, Echinacea, and bee balm are attractive and fill the bare ground with texture and interesting shapes… The sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ turned out to be another winter jewel. Its faded bronze was spectacular next to the pearly silver of a large Artemisia. As I began to think about how a particular flower or shrub would look in winter, I discovered many choices that enhanced the poor evergreens, who had been doing all the work alone."