With Spring here and I as I look out from my oficina window
onto the little garden I grieve at plants lost but happy to see some plants
retained.
I am ambivalent about the ornamental (a very old one) cherry
tree in our Athlone garden. It was beautiful but at this time of the year the
incessant rain would make the blossoms fall. They would fall on the leaves of
my emerging blue hostas. Blue hostas are blue because they have a coating or
indumentum that some say protect the leaves from UV burn. When these blue
hostas are photographed with film cameras and digital cameras (both are
sensitive to UV) the results show plants that are much bluer than they really
are. With such tricks nurseries lure garden owners to ooh! and aah! and drop
lots of money for these blue fakers.
Those of us who have grown hostas for some time know that
you never touch the blue coating or spray the leaves with a strong hose. This
removes the indumentum and the blueness will disappear until the next season.
Which brings me to the cherry tree. Those blossoms fall on
the leaves and unless they are gingerly picked they leave stains on the leaves.
This year I will not have that problem. And yet those
cherry blossoms held by Kathryn on my
studio psychiatric couch bring fond memories of a garden past.