Gardener’s Journal: Some colour in this winter…

Tis the time of year to gaze and lovingly thumb through all the seed catalogues and admire the incredible photos and most of all the colour of the flowers and vegetables on display. I don’t think consciously of the ‘dull’ of winter until those colourful flyers and catalogues arrive. My sister kids me about my ability to re read the same catalogue over and over and perhaps drool over the offerings within. I’ve thought about this pattern to my life in the winter and decided it is my love of colour that is the motivation for this behaviour…

And the desire for colour also explains( although perhaps not fully) the adding of houseplants to my burgeoning collection of living green. I am proud every year when my poinsettia continues to shine and bloom throughout the winter. This year I added a red blooming kalanchoe to the colour scheme blooming in the west window… Somehow the sight of these hardy reds is a great cheer on these dull gray days.

But the best is yet to be. The hibiscus that bloomed so strongly in the heat of last summer and that I have carefully tended through these bleak months, that darling breath of colourful life has begun to build up its leaves again. I might say I think it has begun to wake up! A good indicator that winter is on the wane…

I wonder how my rooms would look without the plants gracing their nooks and corners. Even the rooms that have little light are home to the plants that can survive with less . I enter each room and chat with the greening life and encourage it to keep going. Soon, I say, this season of gloom will lift and you can enjoy the steady warmth and growth you will experience in the better seasons to come. You will be able to thrive in your season then, I remind them all.

Perhaps that is a talk given to myself during this winter of isolation and ‘keep away’. I have found it difficult to sustain my cheer some days when I feel the distance and miss the hugs of friends and family. Maybe I…like my plants…am in a waiting place for the season to change back to life and warmth and connection…and colour.

So here’s to the colours of our lives…to the colours in our plants we carefully nurture. And here’s to the colours yet to be…the healing colours…the healthy colours for all of us…the new growth and life yet to come! Keep growing green my friends!