November 5, 2021
Reflections, Day 28
“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.”
― Neil Gaiman, Dream Country
I had been admiring a plant. It was such a scrawny thing when I planted it a year and a half ago. We were working in Jane’s yard and she is such a great influence on her beautiful back yard garden.
She appeared beside me, “are you looking at the plant with the fancy name?”
“Yes. It’s fascinating.” I replied.
“Yes, what’s its name? Is it fotheringillia?”
I looked straight at her and said, “Edgeworthia.”
“Yes, that’s what I said, Edgeworthia. I love it. And look, the flower buds are beginning.”
Susan Hortman showed me the first edgeworthia I ever saw. There are not very many around, but now and then I get my hands on one. I like to place them in special locations where they will be tended to and loved.
The plant seems to me to be a bush or a small tree. I guess it’s all in the way they are raised.
In the summer the edgeworthia has large, flat green leaves. It likes a good bit of light but I don’t think that it requires full sun.
As fall approaches, the edgeworthia begins to exhibit small white dots that extend on a small stem. These are the flower buds. The plant forms flower buds at the same time it is preparing to drop its leaves for the winter.
As the winter progresses, the flower buds slowly become bigger and bigger. They hang silhouetted by the leafless plant.
And just as spring is beginning, when our psyches need it most, the flowers open up. They look like pendant panicles of fragrant nosegays. The fragrance is captivating. There are several varieties of Edgeworthia.
—john schulz
Power to the peaceful
johntheplantman--Gardening 