Trees and Plants
It might be the season of the Crossvine. I planted it last year to grow on the new gazebo. It seemed to prosper, but not flourish. Then winter came, and I had no idea how it would fare as it died back and seemed to disappear. But apparently it did well and this spring it is heavy with flowers and there are new tendrils reaching out for bare wood and that’s good. It will be fun to watch it this summer and train the runners to their tasks, winding the vines along the wood.
This is the second vine to occupy this stretch of the gardens. The first was a Morning Glory. It had a good long run before the young trees matured and stole it’s place on the fence. It tried moving toward the light, but the eventually it died away. This came at a time when I was otherwise occupied with little energy to make it a new home. I miss the Morning Glory and it’s purple flowers but gardens change over time in rhythm with the sun and the shade. New plants come, old plants go, and the survivors are mostly the trees.
And we have a fine host of trees. Persimmon, Sandpaper, Texas Ash. They’re all growing tall and casting their own shade beneath and around the big oaks. Understory trees, the forgotten heroes of landscaping. The soil enrichers. The shade casters. They’ve changed the shape of the gardens. And the yard in ten years will be different than the yard of ten years ago and so will I and that will be fine and as it should be. And it will be nice sit in their shade and wonder where the time went and hope it was well spent.