Back to the Basics

The coldest part of winter has just passed.  I haven't seen many signs of life in my garden for a couple of months.  Now that the weather is beginning to warm somewhat I'm itching to get outside and dig in the dirt.  But at the moment all I can do is gaze out the window and dream of Spring and the gardening I plan to do when the weather is right... or I can start to formulate a plan.

  
By formulating a plan, I mean planning my plant purchases... getting ready to buy.  If you have ever ordered anything from a business that sells plants, or even anything plant-related, you have more than likely landed on a dozen or more mailing lists.  Plant catalogs are arriving in your mailbox right about now in a steady stream.  Maybe it's your e-mail inbox that being innundated.  At any rate, the plant businesses know that we're all working ourselves into a buying frenzy.

As a rule, when I think of putting more plants into my beds or borders, I usually don't find myself considering purchasing more of what I already have.  If I wanted more of the same, all I would have to do is dig and divide.  I want something new.  I want something different.  I want something that my fellow gardeners don't have (and that they will envy).  So I peruse the pages of the printed materials and surf the web to find anything with those magical words "New and Improved!"

Zinnia 'Cascade Beauty' - Trailing Zinnia

Changes are being made in the plant world on a daily basis. Someone is constantly working on a way to "improve" a daylily or a rose or an oakleaf hydrangea... trying to achieve a larger bloom, a more vibrant color or a longer bloom season.  As gardeners, we've come to expect something new every year.  What we've begun to look for in our plants is the next-to-impossible.

I hear it so often at The Green Thumbs, where I work.  Some of our customers come in with a list of requirements for their plants, which usually resembles something like this...

• Maintenance-free (almost always top of the list!)
• Comes back every year
• Looks good all year / evergreen
• Multiplies, but won't take over the garden
• Attracts hummingbirds or butterflies
• Deer and/or rabbit resistant

The lists sometimes go on and on.  When this is the case, I normally tell the customer that they have two choices... silk or plastic.

I've made plenty of plant purchases that fell under the "New and Improved" category.  For instance, there was the new purple color of the seemingly perfect, ever-blooming daylily 'Stella d' Oro' called 'Purple d' Oro'.


Hemerocallis 'Purple d' Oro'


And then I had to have the 'Joan Senior' daylily because it was the closest thing available to a white daylily.

Hemerocallis 'Joan Senior'

The Oakleaf Hydrangea 'Snowflake' was a must-have because of its larger bloom size and its promise of improved fall color.

Hydrangea quercifolia 'Snowflake'



I couldn't resist the new Cuphea 'Batface'... well, for obvious reasons.

Cuphea llavea 'Batface'

In my attempt to have my beds look good year-round, I needed evergreen plants.  The evergreen ferns seemed to be the ideal fit.

Dryopteris erythrosora - Autumn Fern

Dryopteris erythrosora (Autumn Fern) in foreground; Cyrtomium falcatum (Holly Fern) in background

 The new Illumination Vinca was going to be a great addition to my containers, giving me an evergreen plant with some color variation to spill over the edges of my pots.

Vinca minor 'Illumination'

And the 'August Beauty' Gardenia would allow me to have fragrant blooms long after everyone else's gardenias had ceased to produce flowers.

Gardenia jasminoides 'August Beauty'

Some of these plants did a fair job in fulfilling their expectations.  Most did not.  The Purple d'Oro refuses to re-bloom for me.  The evergreen ferns can't be divided nearly as easily as the traditional deciduous varieties.  The Illumination vinca tends to grow like a sparsely-leaved string.  And the August Beauty begins blooming later than the old standards, and produces much smaller flowers.

I've said all that to say this.  We can't improve on what God first gave us.  Man can try to intervene and fiddle and tinker all he wants, but nothing seems to be better than the original.

Take roses, for instance.  With the recent celebration of Valentine's Day, florists delivered millions of long-stemmed tea roses.  These roses have been bred especially to have those long, sturdy, straight stems, and those tightly-formed, lovely-colored blooms.

I've never had the patience to attempt growing hybrid tea roses.  I consider them among the prima donnas of gardening.  They require too much attention, with the fertilizing and the spraying and the pruning.  Plus, there is hardly any fragrance at all.

That's the thing about most hybrids.  They are bred for certain characteristics, but they lose some of their most precious traits... like fragrance.  Want a rose that smells really good, and is tough as nails?  Get an old fashioned rugosa rose - the parent plant of all the so-called new and improved roses.  Not an easy task if you're shopping at a run-of-the-mill garden center.

Rosa 'Golden Showers'

Years ago, before I began working at a nursery and garden center, I went to a garden center in another town and asked for a rugosa rose.  The salesperson looked at me in astonishment and replied, "A ditchbank rose?  You're looking for a ditchbank rose?  We don't sell those!"

I had never heard it referred to as a "ditchbank rose," but it certainly made sense to me.  It's tough enough to grow, unassisted by man, along the side of the road.  You'll find them still growing and thriving on old homeplaces that have been long abandoned.  They can be seen gracing cemeteries where some were planted more than a half-century ago.  And they smell heavenly!  Yea, that's what I want... a ditchbank rose!

It wasn't the Hybrid Tea Roses that were delivered all across town for Valentine's Day that brought all this to mind.  It was a statement I made to a friend at exercise recently.

Hemerocallis 'Hyperion' - Hyperion Daylily... and old fashioned, very fragrant daylily

"I don't really care if I lose anymore weight or not," I told her.  "I just want to try to be dedicated to eating healthy and exercising regularly."

Since the name of our exercise group is "Faithfully Fit," my statement seemed appropriate.  In all truthfulness, I probably made that statement out of frustration and as a cover-up, since I haven't been able to drop any more weight in the past several months.

Our church's exercise group was designed to help women live by what God's Word tells us in Romans 12:1... "And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice -- the kind He will accept."

Butterfly on blooms of my Abelia x grandiflora - Glossy Abelia - the old, original, easy care Abelia with a delicately, sweet fragrance that attracts both butterflies and hummingbirds.

In our devotionals, we would discuss how proper nutrition and exercise were essential if we were to treat or bodies as the "temples of God" that they are.  But, as time progressed I became guilty of focusing on other aspects, such as finding exercises that promised a "flatter belly" or a more firmed and toned derierre.  I was looking for less flabby arms and a much lower number on the scales.

I began to spend far more time with my South Beach Diet cookbooks than my Bible.  My trust - at least where my physical conditioning was concerned - wasn't in the Lord any longer, but in Dr. Agatston.  My focus became my body, and not my desire to be obedient to God and to "trust in Him with all my heart."  I was trying to do this on my own, in my own way, rather than relying on God and trusting Him to do His work in me.  Slowly but surely I had begun to transform myself from that resiliantly fragrant rugosa rose into that prima donna of a hybrid tea.

Rosa 'Janet' - a rose variety named Janet - given to me by a dear friend and fellow gardener

"I just want to try to be dedicated to eating healthy and exercising regularly."  My own words echoed in my mind weeks later, as God allowed me to hear them with the insincerety with which they were spoken.  Thank goodness for His wake-up calls.  Thank goodness that He doesn't give up on me.  Thank goodness that "His mercies are new every morning."  Thank goodness for second chances.

So it's back to the basics for me with my health and fitness.  It's back to doing it for God, and not for myself.  It's back to relying on Him to lead me in my food and exercise choices.  And once again I give my body to God -- a living and holy sacrifice -- the kind He will accept.

Lonicera fragrantissima - Fragrant Honeysuckle - one of God's most fragrant and carefree gifts to the plant world

"They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.  And my God will meet all your needs, according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 4:18b-19 (New International Version)