Around the Garden

Maybe because my daughter was born on March 28, this impatience for springtime always makes me think of the last weeks of pregnancy. Nature seems expectant, but it’s hard to know from day to day what might arrive in the cabbage patch.

Earlier in the week, light snow accumulated, and the crocuses closed up tightly; the snowdrops demurely drooped their heads. Garden experts claim that a snowdrop loves a cold winter, but this one doesn’t look exactly ecstatic.

Today, the sun is bright, but there is a stiff wind and no warmth in the air. It’s a good day to take a quick turn around the garden, and appreciate what there is to see. Trees and shrubs show off their architecture before the leaves distract our eye.

A lovely slanting light illuminates the rough red bark of the Dawn redwood (Metasequioa glyptostroboides). This tree was once thought extinct, but was found in China around 1946. It’s our only hardy relative of the giant sequoias that grow on the west coast, and has the distinction of being a non-evergreen conifer.

The shrubby Japanese summersweet (Clethra barbinervis) will justify its name come August, but right now it offers up its thin peeling bark, a chalky white that looks eerie as the afternoon sun fades.

Much too close together for good gardening standards (mine is the garden of a whimsical experimenter) is a pair of American elms that I grew from seed. Elms have distinctive rough leaves, like a three-day stubble. Rougher still, the dark gray bark conjures up snakeskin.

More arrested growth lies out there – fat magnolia buds, the daffodil shoots, a patch or two of hardy geraniums – all waiting for a week of warmer days. For now, I will just marvel at nature’s variety and perseverance.