A Point In The Lush

After months of a barren brown world periodically blanketed in white, the returning green is a welcome sight. It starts out short, fresh and new, sprinkled with bulbs and blossoms of many delights. And the green keeps growing.



It goes from short to medium and quickly heads for tall. It just keeps growing. Among all that green is a host of undesirables, either from location, crowding out a preferable plant or from overall poor manners and lack of an interesting bloom.

There comes a point in the growing lush when you just go, dear god this is a nightmare. My inner maintenance gardener is over whelmed and feels the need stay home just to tend to this garden.



I try to ignore it, looking for the pretty tangled in the lush. There are good days and bad days. There are good places in the wild cultivated garden and nightmare places in the wild cultivated garden.



One nightmare place is in the sunny utility meadow where the Clematis virginiana, the Virgin's Bower vine is smothering a big chunk of the meadow. It's got to come out and it has roots like steel cables.

Instead I stroll by the black iris to admire it while it is still here.



In the right light you can tell the black iris is really the deepest purple you can imagine. In this picture it has taken on more of a burgundy tone. To my eye it is really more purple. From a distance there is no doubt. It is black.



The mountain laurels and the native Flame Azaleas follow the rhododendron and bloom while the lush continues its momentum.



Without the editing gardeners all the thugs would soon take over, slowly smothering the light and the life out of so much of the cultivated.



It's a growing jungle out there in need of some serious editing. I'll need to add the wild cultivated garden to my client list to ensure it gets the attention it deserves.