The PEEP-SHOW presents NOTES ON THE SPRING GARDEN / Day 1

photocourtesyflickriver


I am often asked of a plant, by people who are wondering whether it might be worth getting for their garden: 'How long does it flower for?'  If I say: 'For a good month,' in a tone of warm encouragement, they feel all right; but if I say: 'Perhaps three weeks,' in a non-committal sort of voice, they look dubious. Yet the truth about the majority of spring-flowering trees and shrubs is that they last in beauty for one week only.  Almond, plum, cherry and apple blossom{s} come and go with alarming fleetness, each leaving us with another fifty-one weeks of waiting for its return; and yet we do not look at the matter like that at all.  For when they burst into our consciousness and are vividly with us, their presence carries us forward to spring's next revelation and then the next.  There is no time for regrets at this season, or second thoughts or cool evaluations of a plant's rent-paying capacity.


Christopher Lloyd, The Well-Tempered Garden