Perpetual Spring

Windflowers bloom as irises fade

“Hurry or you’ll miss it!”

How does that sound for a rallying call for spring?

New flowers are coming up just as other blooms are fading and I’m running around trying to take it all in, begging Mother Nature and all the garden fairies to slow it down a bit.

Then I pause and remember I am planning and planting my garden to provide a perpetual spring and if I miss a bloom there will soon be another new bloom to take its place.

I remind myself there should always be new blooms in my garden. In February when the witchhazels bloom. In March when crocuses and reticulated irises provide a prelude to windflowers and the first dandelions. In April when the crabapples and early lilacs bloom.  Even in September when the asters bloom.

Spring continues every month in my garden.

Sir Francis Bacon called the seasonal parade of new blooms ver perpetuum, perpetual spring.  I learned of it through the southern garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence who quoted Canon Ellacombe’s words about it from his book “In a Gloucestershire Garden”. Canon Ellacombe in turn quoted Sir Francis Bacon.

My new rallying call for spring should be “It’s Spring’s turn”!

I’ll still run around and try to see every new bloom, but perhaps at a more leisurely pace knowing that when one bloom fades, another flower will come along to take its place. I have planted for a perpetual spring in my garden.

If you would like to purchase a signed copy of my new book, Potted and Pruned: Living a Gardening Life, send an email to Indygardener at Gmail dot com and I’ll hook you up with Paypal to pay me. Hardcopy is $27, Softcover is $20 to cover shipping & handling.