The Amen! of Nature is always a flower.

The Amen! of Nature is always a flower.

 Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

I was talking with a friend several months ago when I commented that I loved my spring garden because it is so pretty.  Another lady butted into the conversation with the corrective words, "Everyone's garden is pretty in the spring."  My friend, with a slight smile, while making eye contact with me replied, I think my garden is prettiest in the fall.  What presumption for me to say that my garden is pretty! For some people gardens must be created with very strict rules in mind.  All  plants must be planted in odd numbers and in a certain order with the proper back lighting. A weed is a sign of  moral failure.

                                         

My garden is a happy place of special memories.  Some of my plants belonged to my grandmother. They snuggle in beside others that I've purchased and many that came from our woods.  The red Bloodgood Japanese maple in the picture above is a Father's Day gift for my dad that I purchased while living in Louisville, KY in 1979. That expensive twig is  now a beautiful burst of sunshine throughout the summer.

Nothing could be prettier than the plants I have taken from my woods. There are the white racemes of the native Tiarella cordifolia L. so descriptively named "Foam Flower" because it's long stamens give it a frothy look.  Peeking up are the decorative leaves of a Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) yet to bloom along with the pointy faces of barely visible Canada Violets (Viola canadensis L.) and an occasional  SmoothYellow Violet (Viola eriocarpa Schwein). A bright red Wake Robin Trillium (Trillium erectum) and Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata L.) have slipped into this crowd of spring beauties.  Cultivars of astilbe, Helleborus Lenten rose, and Sagae hosta stand as sentries around them.

This close-up shows the long stamens of the foam flower, the yellow  and Canada violets, frilly leaves that earlier nourished the flower for the spring ephemeral Dutchman's breeches, the Mayapple, and even a tiny Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum )

This cultivar of the foam flower, whose plant label I lost, is contrasted by the 2 racemes of the native behind it.  Wild blue phlox and a tiny columbine plant can also be seen.