Winter Flowers.

Take a walk in my garden in a cold winter day is one of my secret pleasures. 

Nobody likes to venture outdoor. They say there is nothing to see, that is there are not many flowers. The stern silhouette of a cherry tree, the ghostly bark of a solitary birch or pine needles and prickly holly leaves do not elicit the same immediate and overwhelming enthusiasm. The possibility to discover shapes and proportions, perspectives and unexpected views is ignored. 

The narrow range of colours available in these months does not help. Browns and greens seem to create a bleak and uniform scenery where nothing stands out, only the dripping dark shapes of trunks and bare branches and the untidy seedheads of the last summer flowers. The contrast between the glowing reddish of wild brambles against a grey-green towering pine, or of a carpet of dry maple leaves in the shiny green grass is not duly appreciated, as well as the refined embroideries of the frost or the different shades of lichen patches.

But, there are flowers in my garden in winter. Now it is time for the iris unguicularis, and their beautiful velvety flowers are extremely generous this year. The scent will guide you farther, towards the imposing calycanthus praecox sheltered by an even more imposing chamaecyparis. In another part of the garden, an exuberant lonicera fragrantissima is nested behind a solid mass of rhododendrons. In a few weeks, the daphne odora will be in bloom. Sadly, most of the shrub suddenly died last spring, but there are promising buds on the surviving branches. There will be snowdrops, bergenias, hellebores, crocus and tiny daffodils.

I love them but I don't look for flowers in my garden in winter. I look for silence, a suspended atmosphere, a secret nature, apparently motionless, which you can only find in the garden in winter.



Photos:
TravelinaGarden, January 2016