What's Left?

After the petals fall 

from the clematis vine,

what's left?

What's left is changing,

rearranging 

in its quiet, 

spectacular way.

Clematis Vines in Bloom 2014

The clematis vines are in bloom on trellises around the house; profuse blooms, nodding riots of colour.

What is Blooming

What is Blooming

Gardening is a constant source of humility.  It is arrogance to think that I can ever keep ahead of the weeds!

The best I can do is to appreciate the tough plants and colourful flowers and hardy shrubs that exist around the house, and to tidy the beds and yard. 

Knowing that tub with pansies and violas will always need daily watering and dead–heading, I still enjoy their bright cheery faces.

The low sedum is a persistent spreader and itself, vigorously wages battle with the weeds, sharing perky yellow with the sun.

The campanula (bellflowers) will need some love and care today to get rid of the weeds and other plants growing close by.  I love the shades of pale violet-blue in the garden, so it is worth every effort.

Our Fat Albert Blue Spruce is terrific this summer, lush and bushy, growing vigorously with all the rain we’ve had.  It holds its own now, having weathered bad winters and some kind of needle fungus last summer.  It is a reassuring sight outside the kitchen windows each morning.

We have clematis and another ancient peony in full flower.

Discoveries of what has come and what is going are always amazing!

All photos are mine.

Gargoyle and Clematis

A tiny pensive gargoyle guards my clematis.  Each year he spends the winter in the basement, each spring he comes out and stays until the snow flies again, sitting with arms folded contemplating the garden’s changes.

He watches the clematis vines sprout and grow, climb and bud, and eventually burst into showy white flowers with deep pink bars. 

This particular Nelly Moser clematis did not over-winter well, suffering breakage from the excessive snow.  Consequently, the blooms that usually bud from the previous year’s vine stems will not be here.  The broken vine had to be cut back to deal with the storm damage; it has started over from the height of mere inches.  

This clematis vine is resilient and has managed to grow high enough so that the leaf tendrils are catching in the lattice work, providing a sturdy support to climb. 

The gargoyle will watch over the evolution of the garden this summer; if only he could encourage the clematis and help with the weeding.