Soft Summer
It’s been a good summer for our pink turks caps. Actually, it’s been a good summer for everything. The coral sage is nearly chest high, which is unusual. In a normal summer of sparse rain and high heat normally it will get to my waist and then start to wilt. These days it looks like a miniature forest. But back to the turks caps. They, too, are tall, and this year they are full of blooms.
I was beginning to despair, or at least wonder if they were ever going to do more than give off bashful blooms, the ones that are tucked away so no one sees. This year, everywhere the sun touches them they are full of flowers. It’s a nice change. And it is fun to walk into the garden, where there is still room to walk, and see then up close, and the butterflies like them as well. The hummingbirds prefer the red variety, however, at least as far as I can tell.
Another plant having a good summer is the bindweed. I’ve tried to keep it under control over the years, but the rain and softer summer days are proving beneficial. It’s climbing everywhere and with my attention turned to khaki weed there’s no stopping it. The only good thing about it is the small morning glory type flowers, that actually look nice and add a pleasant bit of texture to the garden, which is, after all, styled to be a natural type of landscape. And the bindweed is nothing if not natural. So, it shall live to bloom another day, or at least until I can get around to it.
John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale