May 2007

Marcescence is the retention of dead plant organs that normally are shed. It is most obvious in deciduous trees that retain leaves through the winter. Several trees normally have marcescent leaves such as oak (Quercus), beech (Fagus) and hornbeam (Carpinus).

There are two difficulties with ground covers: first to get them to grow, and then to get them not to.

In a lot of ways, I'm just hitting my stride, just a little more tired while striding.

A hundred objective measurements didn't sum the worth of a garden; only the delight of its users did that. Only the use made it mean something.

But gardeners do not dwell too long on catastrophe. Failure is an accepted part of daily life and we value our successes the more.

This is the essence of gardening. Looking forward, planning ahead, feeling as if you are wresting the garden from the grasp of its fatigue. It seems trite to mention it, but fall bed work bestows an enormous amount of pride and sense of accomplishment. It lifts the blues of a brutal year and fills a long winter with the joys of a new spring.

Gardening may well be one of the world's most important fantasies.

Optimism overrules pessimism because every spring is an opportunity to start again.

If tending a garden has meant coming under the yoke of the seasons, my capitulation is complete; it is a willed captivity, however, perhaps like any other kind of passion.

. . . the full double [peonies], very like dahlias that have gone to heaven and been transformed.