Hope, Springs, Eternal

Every year Mother Nature delivers

Cornus florida (‘Prairie Pink’?)

Of course after more decades than I should admit to, you’d think I’d be inured. Nature in Colorado is contrary in extremis. We always get late frosts (except for last year) or early ones. Untimely snows almost any month it seems. It’s either too hot or too cold. It’s dry for eons then it rains catastrophically for weeks and drowns things.

This year we’ve had almost no winter (by our standards—it’s been truly shirtsleeve weather most afternoons from October to now). Some were saying we were 5 weeks ahead of schedule phenologically. Last week I recall driving and noticing the almost all the trees had a gauzy chartreuse of new leaves…”Nature’s first green is gold” as Robert Frost puts it.

Last Friday is snowed all day (bringing some moisture—perhaps a quarter inch but still welcome) and the temperatures plummeted to the lower 20’s: at least 24F in much of Denver. It dealt many plants a lot of damage. The foliage on many trees was seared black: honey locusts, ashes, hackberries (for Heaven’s sake), golden rain trees, gingkoes many oaks will have to expend energy already stressed by drought to produce new leaves. No wonder our native landscape is grassland (the grasses are fine, thank you!)…

Let’s not even talk about magnolias! Hostas are a joke. Bergenia flowers are all brown. The list could go on ad infinitum: it was heart breaking for those of us who love plants.

That said, there were scads of plants that were unfazed. Like the pink dogwood in the picture above (taken today in the Rock Alpine Garden). Japanese maples looked fine—in fact all maples looked good. The more I looked, the more I was astonished at what came through well. Texas madrones look great. Ditto most native plants.

We go though life thinking we shall attain some magical state—nirvana. Equilibrium. Our gardens will achieve a sort of ecological balance that excludes weeds, lets them bloom non stop and need no tending forevermore. Those of us who are truly deluded (which is to say everyone) thinks NEXT week, Next Month, Next Year I’ll have it all together. I will remember everyone’s birthday and send cards, or at least a text. I shall clean up that mess. I will visit that elderly friend or family member who lives alone.

Don’t worry! Mother Nature has it handled. You shall encounter hail or devastating floods. You shall twist your ankle or need an implant. Or Donald will decide to invade Cuba or Liberia or Montenegro (surely one of those has petroleum?).

Never mind. When that’s done, just survey the wreckage and see who’s still blooming and carry on.