- Author: Lowell Cooper
I just opened my email to find an invitation from Jennifer to send a photo of what is new in the garden. It's a good Springtime query even in the best of times. But with coronavirus in the center stage, it is a particularly good excuse to get something else to think about. Since all my normal activities have been cancelled, I have been wandering around my garden knowing that while the roses continue to grow, there is nothing else new. However, my wife and I had dinner with a couple – at our house, I might add, no nasty petri dish of a restaurant. They showed up with a beautiful surprise: an orange star, aka Ornithogalum dublum. It came in an unassuming 4” pot and it has 4 bulbs in it with very delicate orange flowers.
Since people know that I am a flower buff, getting this kind of house present is so much more welcome than a bottle of wine. I am a non-drinker. It could have been any plant out of the Western Garden Book, but the surprise was how well-timed it came. After all, isolating in place for several weeks is a drab prospect and we knew that this dinner was our social swan song for some time. And added to it is cloudy wet and chilly weather we have been having lately. I know that this weather will serve us all well as the next few months unfold – but give me a break; the world was already feeling unwelcoming if not a downright dangerous place.
I realize that we will all have to find the best accommodation we can to stay healthy, especially those of us in the vulnerable demographic, dare I say senior citizen. I really appreciate Jennifer's invitation to focus on our garden – indoor and outdoor. It is a good idea to have something else in mind, even though it doesn't substitute for a roll of toilet paper.