A Blooming Bower

Fair scenes for childhood's opening bloom,
For sportive youth to stray in,
For manhood to enjoy his strength
And age to wear away in!
Yon cottage seems a bower of bliss,
A covert for protection
Of tender thoughts that nestle there -
The brood of chaste affection.

[from Yarrow Visited by William Wordsworth, September 1814]

Strolling about the garden, I cannot help but think about the preceding owners of this place. Avid gardeners, they left a loving legacy of flowering trees, steadfast perennials, and specimen plantings that it would take dollars and decades to duplicate.

Over a week ago, our dozen or so dogwood Cinderellas, so plain and unassuming the rest of the year, emerged from fairy coaches and are still deliriously dancing at the ball, forgetting, at least for the moment, that the stroke of midnight is fast approaching, and a return to a hearth of humble green will come all too soon. Surely, if they were to look up from their carefree gavotte even for a moment, they could not fail to notice the pinky petals descending like snow from the flowering cherries, a subtle reminder of the ephemeral nature of Spring.

Like childhood, spring blossoms fade too quickly, and yet perhaps it is this very fleeting-ness that gives our hearts a pleasant throb to catch sight of trees decked out in springtime array.

Blooming now in the Cottage Garden

Cherry, Prunus "Kanzan":

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A younger Cherry, with pale pink, blush colored blooms, flanking the driveway:

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American Dogwood, Cornus florida "Cherokee Brave":

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Dogwood, Cornus florida "Cloud Nine"

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Even the mighty Oak boasts a "flower" all its own:

The two crabapples, like aging matrons, retain only a bit of color:

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Even our temporary pond, still sporting its forlorn, but serviceable, plastic liner, looks almost romantic when framed by flowering dogwoods:

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This attractive Cherry, Prunus sargentii, bloomed earlier in April:

Here it is in burgundy gown now:

Comments

[Melissa Wiley]

Gorgeous. Our dogwoods came into bloom just in time to welcome the new baby. Everything is green and leafy here now!

[Elizabeth Foss]

Just beautiful! I love dogwoods--they actually remind me of Charlottesville, Lissa. The dogwoods would bloom in time to console us as we wrote final papers and prepared for exams. Alice, what fun it must have been for all of you that first spring in your new house, watching nature unwrap treasure after treasure as things bloomed!

[Amy]

Beautiful!

[Theresa]

Absolutely gorgeous! This was such a good year for the dogwoods around here, too. I cannot recall a year when they had brighter, fuller blooms.

[Christine]

You dogwoods are beautiful! When I was a child, we had a pink dogwood growing outside our dining room window. Thank you for bringing back a memory.

[Meredith]

The garden is as enchanting as you are my dear, what a haven for your beautiful family. Thank you for sharing it with us!

[Dawn]

Just gorgeous!! Alice, what lovely grounds your family enjoys!! My dh saw my screen and made a beeline to peek over my shoulder at the stunning photos! :)

[Angel]

Your pictures are so beautiful. Here in upstate New York I think we are a little too far north for dogwoods, but I miss them. We had many dogwoods growing wild in the woods around our home where I grew up in Tennessee.