"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.”

June is surely one of the most beautiful times in a garden. We go out every day to see the buds on flowers, waiting for them to open up as if they were children learning to stand or finally walk.

I take endless photos of plants in the yard to document and remember where they are and when they begin to bloom, and then, how long they remain flowering. When the first blooms open up on a plant, I’m torn between aching to snip off a flower immediately to bring it inside, and wanting to enjoy all the color outdoors. Then, in the end, because I’m impatient, I’ll go ahead and cut it, only to remember that that really does spur more growth, and we are lucky to wind up having it both ways.

I’m glad I live where there are four seasons. North Carolina’s seasons are more “blended” than other places where I’ve lived, but I’d miss any one of them if I didn’t have them all. I love spring, where things are just bursting forth and glorious colors abound. Summers, while hot and humid in NC, still somehow manage to encourage beautiful flowers. Even in last summer’s drought, we had enough plants that thrive in the scorching sun to enjoy color the whole season.

Fall is vibrant rusts, gold and red; and winter, while more stark than the other seasons, is still mild enough for pansies to grow, and so even then, we do have color here. I agree with Mr. Emerson, who said:

“Earth laughs in flowers.”
(-Ralph Waldo Emerson)