The Heritage Garden
September 9th
Last week, the Heritage Garden felt like a fight.
A fight for color. For shape. For a last push for height. The garden seemed to have a vigor all its own. Reaching, filling, pushing… determined to outlast summer, the inevitable.
Today, it’s still brilliant. But the long, hot summer seems to have prevailed.
First, you have to accept it. Then stand back and take in each garden before you dive into the details. The color is still there, but so are the signs of wear—the spent blooms, the work of maintenance, the evidence that summer has been at it for a while.
Nothing has disappeared. Not yet.But you can feel it.
Summer is fleeting.
Spiranthes magnicamporum
“They are all Great Plains Lady’s Tresses. Or Ladies Tresses. Or Ladies’-tresses.”
—Diana Morse
Diana was trying to settle on a name for a plant she had been looking at the week before.
And suddenly, the visual gives way to something else. There is so much more here than what first catches the eye. A flower can lead you into botany, history, identification, the relationships between plants and the places they grow. One thought opens another, and before you know it, you're off in an entirely different direction.
Then, from somewhere across the garden:
“Tree Snakes! Quit slackin’ and get over here and take some pictures!”
Susan bellows it across the garden.
And just like that, we switch gears.
That's part of what I like about this place. You don't have to finish one thought before something else gets your attention. There is always another plant, another question, another story waiting to pull you in.
Summer may be fleeting.
But there's always something next.
