Yesterday saw a bumper sticker that read: “ Perform Random Acts of Gardening”. It was obviously a knock off of the “ Random Acts of Kindness” movement that Oprah made popular, which in turn I believe was started to heal the fears of random acts of violence in Southern California.
I’d like to steal and alter this phrase too. I’d like to say “allow random acts in the garden”. I know allowing the garden is probably the gardener’s hardest task. Especially if you’re a control freak gardener like me. But some of the best things that happen in the garden are very random. I had planted these korean rock ferns ( Polystichum tsus-simensis ) and variegated pachysandra ( Pachysandra terminalis ‘Variegata’) in a shady corner where they flourished and lightened up the dense shade. But it wasn’t until this Wester Flisk hellebore (Helleborus foetidus ‘Wester Flisk’) seeded in that the corner became interesting. I don’t know if it is the birds that visit the garden that transported the seed to this location. Or that rotten squirrel that does so much damamge. I cannot credit anyone. Nor take credit myself. But this hellebore acts like a torch in this combination, playing elegantly and solidly between the ferns texture and the pachysandra’s color.
I plant on stealing this combination and using it elsewhere, we are all thieves in the garden.
Or strip-tease acts.
There is something so sexy about magnolia flowers , especially when they are just starting to undress. This blossom was forced, we are really not that far along yet.