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| Rosa 'Abraham Darby' (6 inches wide!) & Hosta 'Robert Frost' 27 May 2023 |
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| Rosa 'Charles de Mills' & Hosta 'Designer Genes' 26 May 2023 |
When incidents happen that are important in my life I remember the aphorisms and advice that my Valencia educated grandmother would give me. Little did I know then that many were the advice Sancho Panza gave to his knight boss.
One of them comes to mind especially in this century where knowledge is dissipating quickly.
Back in the 20th I was no better, and my lack of curiousity for some of the fine points of literature was in effect.
In 1962 I was going to an American university, Mexico City College, in Mexico City. In an American Literature class our professor was whit-haired and he even looked like his good friend Robert Frost who had died the year before. I remember that I sat in the back row completely bored and with no curiousity to ask the man about his moments with the poet.
In the hosta kingdom of over 15,000 registered specimens there are only two named after poets. I have Hosta ‘Robert Frost’. As soon as I became most interested in Emily Dickinson, Hosta ‘Emily Dickinson’ was no longer available in the Vancouver and BC nurseries. Alas!
My hosta Robert Frost is an old introduction from at least 28 years ago and its variegation is staid. One of the reasons is that I have it in deep shade. With more sun it could become more exciting.
On the
other hand just like I wrote about the human face of plants and how I connect
them to people I know or the history of humans behind them, Hosta ‘Robert Frost’
made me look for a poem that I could associate with hostas. I hit paydirt! There is a host in my garden that is astoundingly gold (yellow) as it emerges in May. It is now huge. But it is viridescent which means as the season progresses it becomes green.
Nothing Gold Can Stay - Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
