Summer Romances

Gardening is not for the faint-of-heart. As gardeners, we anticipate each new spring and summer knowing there will be passionate new loves as our gardens bloom and, of course, devastating loss. We all know summer romances can’t last.

We bore our friends with our enraptured descriptions of the most perfect beauty of whatever is blossoming at the moment. And then confirm our lack of sanity when we are broken-hearted a few short weeks later as our perfect loves begin to fade away and die.

“…After all, my erstwhile dear,
My no longer cherished,
Need we say it was not love,
Just because it perished?”

Edna St. Vincent Millay
from Passer Mortuus Est
in Second April
1921

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But, happily, we know our grief will soon turn to joy (…the next day) because there is always a new love ready to blossom.

So far this year I have experienced two wonderfully consuming romances. First, it was the irises – some wild, some cultivated, blossoming fresh and delicate when everything was shimmering  spring green.

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Wild Iris

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Next came the daylilies…

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Double Daylily

So many colors, sizes, shapes and textures!

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Yellow Daylily

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But I really think the simple, elegant “Common Daylily” is my one true love this year.

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Common Daylily at Sunset.

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Well…so far.

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Wild Along the Connecticut River

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Covering the Banks of the Connecticut River

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