One of the topics that my gardening groups always like to talk about is plants that give a long period of interest.
And yet… Perhaps the thing we all value most in the garden is the appearance of fleeting treasures.
I have two very elderly cherry trees, both of them ‘Kanzan’, that great froth of frilly pink frou-frou so redolent of the ’50s. It lightens your heart for about three days, and then casts itself at your feet in flowery death throes.
Likewise the tree peonies. This one will come and go in the blink of an eye.
Would I be without them? Not for a minute.
Speaking of peonies – one of mine is about to burst bud, and each bud has its own small party of excitable ants.
Why? What are they doing? They are only on the buds, and only on that particular plant, although the garden is a minefield of both red and black ants. There is nothing else other than the swelling bud but the ants are running around, rubbing antennae, much too fast for the camera, in a state of high anticipation.
But ants or not, this will be another fleeting treasure, and all the more welcome for it.
The Pleasure Gardener 