Wasn’t it only a day or so ago that I was reveling in the beauty of the Jean Maries in our garden?  Probably more like a week… but even so.

My grandmother once said that the greatest sorrow is to have had beauty once and to have lost it.  No doubt she was speaking of herself for she was, indeed, beautiful as a young woman and after seven children and a lifetime of hard work and care, she aged much too rapidly.  I can’t really relate to her remark on a personal basis, but with regard to our garden, truer words were never spoken.

Right now, what was once a magnificent display of red rhododendrons circling our house is now a mass of withered and faded-to-pink blossoms begging to be put out of their misery.  The lilacs, too, have dried up and are turning brown and the hyacinths have left nothing behind but their long falling-over leaves.  All of it is calling to me to “”Get busy!”

The saving grace with gardens, though, is they have never lost their beauty completely.  Next year all the flowers will have another opportunity to flaunt their stuff.  And, meanwhile, there are other lovely things in store.

Our honeysuckle is just bursting forth and I get little whiffs of the fragrance that will overwhelm that corner of the garden within a week or so.  The tiger lilies are up and promising to bloom before the month is over, and the green leaves of nasturtiums are starting to crawl across the flower beds.

June, like March, is a Tween Time in our garden.  I’m trying to concentrate on the promises it holds and not on the have-beens.  It’s a good exercise for someone like me with one of those glass-half-empty kinds of personality.  And, speaking of exercise… maybe if I’d get out there and deadhead for a while my outlook would improve!