It might be. This flowering quince is the first thing in The Garden to bloom this year. Though the skies are grey and the air wet with rain today, the plant's pink flowers lend an optimistic note.
Taking a tour around The Garden... Mr. You has already texted me three times asking for updates... I have noticed crocus sprouting through the hard gravely clay down by the Fish Swimming Pool. I thought they had been bull-dozed into oblivion. Along the stone path, which leads to the Castle of Codiponte, another series of bushes, ones I had planted over a year and a half ago to build a green privacy wall, are now rife with deep red leaves of sudden new growth and are soon to be caped by their odd bouquets of furry beige flowers. And, the lille bushes above the Cortile's massive stone wall are a veritable convention of buds waiting, perhaps, for the days to last just a half-hour longer before breaking-out in their waxy green leaves.
There has been some tragedy too. We lost three pyracanthas... a pretty bush with tiny green leaves the whole year-round, graced with bright orange berries during the Fall & Winter... highly poisonous ones too... but, they come equipped with stabbing spikes. Anti-dog devices. A neighbor's dogs have all of Nature to donate their "hard-stuff" but, where do they choose to leave it? In My Garden!!! Another plant, whose name I cannot recall... I called them the Chinese Restaurant Plants since, every Chinese restaurant has them in planters at the entrance... also were burnt to a crisp brown by the extreme cold & ice of late. They will not be replaced.
Having lived through a year's turn of seasons here in Codiponte, I am coming to know what are the real climatic conditions of My Garden. I know where the sun strikes, where it is very humid, where it is too cold and where it is hot. For instance, I may have to move the hydrangeas from above the retaining wall below the Fish Swimming Pool, if the willows there have not grown enough to give them more shade. I will know shortly.
In the meantime, I must get cracking on pruning, cleaning beds & planting the next installment of plants. 40 more are due next Wednesday. Then, there is a rock wall to repair... with my own hands. Gads.
There has been some tragedy too. We lost three pyracanthas... a pretty bush with tiny green leaves the whole year-round, graced with bright orange berries during the Fall & Winter... highly poisonous ones too... but, they come equipped with stabbing spikes. Anti-dog devices. A neighbor's dogs have all of Nature to donate their "hard-stuff" but, where do they choose to leave it? In My Garden!!! Another plant, whose name I cannot recall... I called them the Chinese Restaurant Plants since, every Chinese restaurant has them in planters at the entrance... also were burnt to a crisp brown by the extreme cold & ice of late. They will not be replaced.
Having lived through a year's turn of seasons here in Codiponte, I am coming to know what are the real climatic conditions of My Garden. I know where the sun strikes, where it is very humid, where it is too cold and where it is hot. For instance, I may have to move the hydrangeas from above the retaining wall below the Fish Swimming Pool, if the willows there have not grown enough to give them more shade. I will know shortly.
In the meantime, I must get cracking on pruning, cleaning beds & planting the next installment of plants. 40 more are due next Wednesday. Then, there is a rock wall to repair... with my own hands. Gads.
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