Playwrights Can Help With Garden Losses!

As I stated earlier, it rained heavily the evening after Juan V and I had worked, but fortunately I was able to bring my Tree Peony inside. It continued (as I have already indicated) to rain the following day (which was my editor's birthday). Therefore, we did not have our soirée outside as planned, rather we ate inside and I forgot to take a picture of her blowing out the single glittered candle honoring her ninetieth.

Sometimes I am so caught up in the moment that I forget to take pictures of it, as was the case with my Tree Peony in 2012! For that year, a similar thing happened. On a hot and sunny May morning in 2012, Juan V and I worked in my garden, transplanting my Beech Tree.

The morning of the day we worked in 2012, nearly ten blooms had opened to their full extent on my Tree Peony but I hadn't gotten a chance to take pictures of it because we were working in the garden. Thankfully, Juan got pictures of it when he used my camera to take an aerial view.

A few hours after he left, the weather changed drastically: high winds began to blow and the clouds poured down rain, without me having my own photo-ops of my Tree Peony's 2012 flower! Moreover, I accidentally deleted — the aerial images Juan had taken of it — from my camera's memory card!

Since that time, in terms of my peony, I've tried to get photo-ops of it whenever I can, especially since the shrub's flowers — once in full bloom — are short-lived.

I did not take any pictures of it when Juan was here this past Wednesday, but at least I did not delete his from my memory card! Moreover, I was able to capture the personality of these awesome flowers on the prior day (5-6-14) and some of the images I took can be seen below.

The flowers of the Tree Peony have inspired me ever since I first saw them (as you might surmise from the image of me below).

In bygone years, I used my various images of flowers from my Tree Peony (not included in this post) in my designs of invitations, brochures and event program covers. I have also written about this shrub on number occasions on Blogger @ http://www.thelastleafgardener.com/search/label/Paeonia%20suffruiticosa%20%28Tree%20Peony%29

The peony shrub continues to be lovely, long after the flowers from it are gone, what remains is lovely to look at and to also use in cut flower arrangements, if you have the heart to cut them from the shrub. It is my firm believe that "close to the end (of life) is precious, like close to the beginning,* hence my valuing my friendship with my ninety year old editor and friend.

* This quote is from Herb Gardener's play ("I'm not Rappaport") and was the theme of a couple of videos I produced (re valuing all aspects of the life of flora) campaign I launched on indiegogo a couple of years ago.

The campaign has come and gone, but if you'd like to see the videos (very short) of the flora involved, they can be accessed on Vimeo via the following links:

https://vimeo.com/41016521

AND

https://vimeo.com/40666047

While it's true my campaign has come and gone, my philosophy of valuing human life, flora, and the life of those in the animal kingdom remains: "The very old, they are miracles like the just born, close to the end is precious like close to the beginning," which is the full quote from Gardener's play.

It is not a bad philosophy for gardeners to follow, as it might help in times when flora is in the process of dying, which is a time when it can still be very beautiful as evidenced in the images of flora in my aforementioned videos.

Another philosophy, I've found helpful as a gardener also comes from a different playwright.

Shakespeare has said, " . . . . they have their exits and their entrances . . . . ". He was not referring to flowers, but I won't tell my flora that!

For when one of them exits — dies or goes to sleep (for a season) – another enters! At this time in my garden while the peony flower and tulips are exiting, the flowers from my Smokey Bush are getting ready to enter, as you might surmise from the following image.

The delicate flowers of the Smoke Bush are an awesome sight to behold, but its foliage is a wonder too, changing colors and textures through out the seasons as you can see from images included in my posts on Blogger as well a tumblr, which can be accessed by the respective links.

Blogger @ http://www.thelastleafgardener.com/search/label/Continus%20Coggygria%20%28Smokey%20Bush%29

tumblr @ http://thelastleafgardener.tumblr.com/search/Smoke+Bush

The birds that visit my garden find solace in the smoke bush's branches as you can see from the house finch having a respite in them (pictured below).

FYI, an image of this shrub's springtime colored leaves (burgundy) was rendered into a greeting card which can be seen @ http://www.patriciayoungquist.com/Pages/store/notes_ac.html

Moreover, the smoke bush is indicated by the number two in the opening image of this entry. The number 3 indicates buds on my H.F. Clematis, which are about to burst into flowers and make their grand entrance as evidenced by the pictures below.

The H.F. Clematis is a vine I've had in my garden for at least eight years and it continues to thrive in spite of being uprooted for a garden renovation!

Details @ http://www.thelastleafgardener.com/2012/09/ta-da-ive-put-square-peg-in-round-hole.html

It was purchased from a greenmarket at Union Square in New York, a market where I have met eclectic growers, including the woman pictured below holding her prized basil.

This grower recently sold me some dill, the herb which is indicated by the number four in my opening picture for today's entry. Upon doing this she told me how much she hated cardinals, which are some of my favorite birds. She claims they eat all the wheat grass in her greenhouse and that she constantly has to shoo them away.

I told her to shoo them to me, for it is pigeons that are shooing away my cardinals as well as my other songbirds. Because of an invasion by pigeons, I've had to remove ALL the feeding systems and feeders, feeders and systems that I wrote about on a number of entries on HT.

This grower's dill, as well as my last ditch effort make-shift feeding system, are indicated by numbers four and five in the first image of this posting.

I cannot post close-ups of either as HT has just informed me, via a pop-up, that I've reached my image quota for this posting. Now I know how an Oscar winner must feel when the pianist cuts off his/her acceptance speech. Therefore, I'll leave my posting here for today, with an intent to write about my make-shift feeder systems at some point.

Meanwhile, I hope the quotations (by the playwrights I've include in this post), dear reader and gardener, can offer you solace during gardening losses.