Blue SkyBluePink is a color etched in my childhood memory. Perhaps it was only a product of my mother’s imagination but it always seemed real to me. It was not a painter’s color choice or could it be found in the finest photographs. SkyBluePink was the color of dawn when it introduces itself gently and without fanfare. The whole of the eastern sky would be a pale blue with a few wispy clouds reflecting the rising sun; such an un-intrusive sky might arrive at any time of the year but when it did, it would be a glimpse of a fine day to come. Dawns like this are never found in cities or centers of commerce and industry. There, dawn will rise in a frenetic blare of noise and abundant vitality shattering visions of grace and beauty like a swan ashore, a strident voice loud in discord or an ungraceful ballerina. Those shy dawns so common in my pre-teen days are rare now as the world around me has grown up and changed. Rare they may be these treasures can still be found. They can be seen from gardens in quiet suburbs, from the sea, well out to shore, beyond open fields or in the countryside. No garden boasts a flower that can truly duplicate such a sky, nor would Nature try in any way to improve on such perfection. Our gardens are living proof that Nature obliges herself in meting out blue as a flower color in meager portions and then only in Spring as a season or Cool as a climate. Were we to have a summer garden resplendent in shades of blue, it would tend to cool us with thoughts of oceans or clear blue skies; but the pity is that most blue flowers can’t stand the summer heat and of course, SkyBluePink would indeed refresh us but, it is reserved only for the sky at dawn. Here in the Mediterranean climate of the San Francisco Bay Area masses of blue flowers in the summer are rare. While we are not starved for color in any way, for the most part blue here seems reserved for music, jeans, movies and of course, the sky. So why is it so important in the garden? You can spend a lifetime trying to recreate the elusive figments etched in childhood memories. This may be why some of us garden. Whether we may admit it or not it stirs hidden memories and emotions and sometimes makes us think about things we heard before and what they mean to us now. Gardening is not a gregarious pursuit and while we are out there, silent and alone, tending our plot and letting our mind wander we may imagine we can touch that blue-pink sky through a flower. The Hobby Gardener
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 03:09:09 +0000
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