The Revolution will be Televised

From a revolutionary perspective, 2011 has been extraordinary: first, Tunisia; then, Egypt. As I listen to media reports about protests in other Middle East countries, I sense the pregnant but as yet unspoken urgency to identify a third. Will it be Bahrain? Iran? Yemen?

Yet the revolutionary winds have blown far from the Middle East.

A revolution brews right here at 410. Yes, here in Wilmington, Delaware. I tremble.

Today, 16 February 2011—yes, 16 February!—I spotted the vanguard itself, rearing their heads ready for the battle to begin. At first these things seem sporadic, disconnected. But then they magnify and, over time, the assault begins.

To the north, I spied one little opening bud of the Climbing Hydrangea (quite prematurely, given the closed tight buds on the remainder of the plant). It is the vanguard of the vanguard, scouting out the terrain and the atmosphere.

In the south-central part of the garden, I spied this little patch of the new shoots of Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum)!

And across the walkway, to the south-west, there he was, safety in numbers: three artichoke-like flower buds of my beloved, hunky Petasites japonicus emerging from the soil. He returned to sweep me off my feet, my knight-in-leafy armor!

Soon, the revolution will occur. Winter will be ceremoniously deposed! Photos will be taken! The landscape will change!  

  

Can there be anything more delicious than spring green after months of winter white and moribund browns?

Vegetative vanguard, unite! 

Baked

18 June 2010, Wilmington, Delaware. Mini-drought.

The ground is thirsty. The clay is baked, cracked.

Verbena bonariensis and the Euphorbias, singing their "duop-duops" in the silver corner after an opening act of Provence lavender blues, don't seem to mind; in fact, I think they rather enjoy being hot and bothered, swaying in the southern breezes. "Bring me my G&T," I hear myself saying aloud to no one in particular. This show is proving to be good. Only Miss Gray Kitty responds with her meow. And I continue standing there, empty handed, Bombay Sapphire awaiting me in the freezer. Go figure.

Others, however...well, they dislike this early onset of summer aridity. Rudbeckia, now in full bloom, droops, while the Blood Red dahlia bows her pretty little head in somber remembrance of moisture past. Thankfully, I had the wherewithal to plant her next to Verbena, whose leggy height and clustering of elongated leaves near the base provide her some relief. One of her sisters, however, fares not thee well. I planted her tuber in an open span at the mouth of the Lysimachia river, whose course has since been diverted since I last wrote about my riveting trip down her chartreuse colored waves. If her shielded sister has mounded, dense and tight, and has sported two appreciable flowers, the other's new shoots were repeatedly assaulted by ravenous slugs whose nectar is the young dahlia. She remains under assault, but this time by harsh early season sun and dry conditions.

In the back garden, Climbing Hydrangea, a striking Medusa incarnate, splays her tendrils. Though she produced an appreciable display of flowers in mid spring, she really needs more sun to work her magic. The lack of moisture (save for the water I occasionally provide) does not seem to bother her; perhaps it only stunts her growth, for which the neighboring plants thank me profusely by awarding me with full displays. Should she prove a more vigorous grower, however, she might not turn my plants into stone but rather into withered, wilted remains which I think worse given my fetish for rock.

And so we wait for rain. Nay, we beg for rain. And water those who yearn for April showers, now a distant memory.