No doubt about it, it is summer now. The field daisies have been in bloom since mid-June, and now come the black-eyed Susans, whose color smacks you in the eye. I find in Gray’s Manual of Botany that color is given simply as orange-yellow. To me it is a special brassy golden color, full of sunlight, a color that no artist I can remember except Van Gogh ever used.
~ Hal Borland
(Hal Borland’s Book of Days)
Mine are in bloom, too, and they’re gorgeous. The best part? I didn’t have to plant them (the birds did), but I get to enjoy them. Their color is indeed striking. I think of it as yellow-gold, but perhaps “brassy gold” is more accurate.
How kind of the birds to plant a black-eyed Susan garden for you! They made a good choice. 😉 Whatever we call their color it is so bold it does kind of ‘smacks us in the eye,’ like a small bright sun shining in the summer garden.
Yes! Sun-disks in the meadow!
That color radiates so much warmth!
The best part of Summer is the flowers; second are the delicate creatures that alight on them. 🙂
I agree 100%! Complain as we do about the heat and humidity, the flowers thrive in the weather that makes us so uncomfortable. 🙂
They are amazingly resilient. I am always amazed when I see the first Snowdrops popping out of the ground, sometimes when snow is still around. I think I’ve mentioned the neighbor across the street who passed away shortly after my mom. Her children sold the house and the new owner tore out all the front and side gardens; there were bushes and many bulbs. They didn’t replant, just ripped them out. The rototiller missed a few bulbs and those daffodils continue to emerge every Spring. There have been several owners since her passing and the current owners don’t care about the garden, but I am reminded of her every Spring. The gardens (including a huge perennial garden in the backyard) were her pride and joy. She had tulips too and once she heard kids’ voices and went to the front door to see several kids in the garden, each with a handful of tulips.. She was furious with them and as they ran away, they threw the tulips on the ground.
When Tim’s brother was dying of cancer and living with us in 2013 he kept himself busy re-doing my garden so I wouldn’t have so much weeding to do in the future. He removed some bushes I never liked, planted some new ones, and put down landscaping fabric to eliminate the weeds. He died in December and the following spring I was amazed when the buried snow drop, crocus, chionodoxa, and tulip bulbs broke through the fabric and bloomed anyway. And there were no weeds to pull. It seemed like magic.
That’s a nice story about Tim’s brother who immersed himself in redoing your garden to get his mind off his medical issues. You were able to spend the next decade enjoying the fruits of his labors. Those bulbs emerging every Spring are a reminder of the goodness of nature, though it’s difficult to be happy with nature with this hot and/or volatile weather we are having.
After he died, in his memory we planted that river birch in the garden and it grew by leaps and bounds in that decade. I loved seeing it every morning when I opened the kitchen curtains. I was so angry when our old neighbor told us the condo association cut it down after we moved out. It broke my heart. And the new owner was upset about it, too. Now all I have is my pictures of it.
I remember you mentioning that birch tree before. That’s terrible Barbara – I would be angry too. We had a birch tree in the front of the house, but it got birch borer disease and had to be removed.
🙏
Yes, a special summery color for sure. We are in the in the height of summer days and I am trying my best to savor: the color, the warmth (even when it gets too hot and humid, I prefer that to cold), the flowers everywhere you look, and for me, being as lazy or active as I choose, knowing full well this time is fleeting. Before I know it, the end of August and the start of the ” s word” I don’t want to say will be here.
Your summer sounds so blissful to me, Karma!!! I have a friend down here who escapes to New England in the summer to avoid the brutal heat and humidity in these parts. Even on the hottest days up there we used to go down to the beach after supper to sit on a bench watching the boats come and go, enjoying the beach roses, song sparrows, gulls, and sea breezes. Since I don’t have the s-word to dread I’m looking forward to September. 😉