Monday, June 23, 2014

Volunteers

John removed a bunch of brambles from one end of the shrub border a summer or two ago by scraping them off the face of the earth with the bucket of the tractor. Now a great clump of foxgloves has volunteered on the spot! There are a lot of foxgloves sprinkled around the hill, but I didn't realize they would lie dormant in the soil, awaiting their chance at conquest. This makes me want to go around experimentally scraping places here and there to see what happens. Sure, you might get yellow dock and pig-ear plantain, or you might get extravagant columns of pink and white bells!
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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 24, 2014 at 5:51 AM

    Beautiful. I wonder what late summer blooms will come up behind them.

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  2. Melissa Whalen HaertschJune 24, 2014 at 9:36 AM

    It's funny what's around in different places. Long ago when I lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a century-old house was torn down and the site was bare for a while, and hundreds of petunias came up on the lot, the kind with the small hot pink trumpet--presumably an unimproved variety. I see them sometimes now in other parts of the city, growing along the edges of things.

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  3. Rodrica TilleyJune 25, 2014 at 9:43 AM

    Lovely! Your property is enchanted; a gardener's legacy left by generations of plant lovers.

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  4. Melissa Whalen HaertschJune 25, 2014 at 9:47 AM

    So true, Roddy. I am trying to do my part to introduce some new elements of joy for future generations who live here.

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  5. JenJune 25, 2014 at 10:08 AM

    I remember when the foxgloves used to grow in the gardens by the sundial to the south of the Cope house. I used to pick a few and put them on my finger tips :) Foxgloves always make me think of Woodbourne :)

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  6. Melissa Whalen HaertschJune 25, 2014 at 10:25 AM

    That is so sweet. This really is an excellent place to be a child. Not bad for adults either! :) Meanwhile, the foxgloves bloom on in the sundial garden, whence their progeny have scattered all over the hilltop and down into several of the orchards. A highly satisfactory situation. We ourselves came to Woodbourne at foxglove time, so I know our anniversary is coming soon. 11 years! Who can believe it!

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  7. JenJune 25, 2014 at 2:02 PM

    11 years? Seriously? In some ways it still feels like you are newcomers, likely because time tends to stand still on the hill....a very welcome presence these past 11 years!

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