If Winter Comes

If Winter Comes

“….If winter comes can spring be far behind……”

No, I didn’t write that line, the English Poet, Shelley, did. But here is my question for Percy (that was his 1st name) – is there such a thing as winter refusing to make way for spring? It certainly feels like it this year.
A friend of mine wrote me awhile back that it sounded to her as though the winter we were having on the East coast this year of 2010 was more like the ones she remembered as a child.
Well, I’m older than she is, and I remember some pretty severe winters, but not any that had snow in the month of February every other day, and some of the snowfalls very deep. In fact, I got so tired of shoveling my driveway and front walk this year that I decided to splurge and make one of my grandsons very rich by enticing him over to do the really heavy stuff, then grossly overpaying him simply because he was my grandson, and what’s more he had the biggest shovel I have ever seen which made the job go more quickly than it would for most.
Where else other than in the chair at Goldman Sachs, perhaps, can you make $40.00 an hour by lifting a simple shovel again and again? Of course, there was a difference. My grandson lifted snow whereas at Goldman Sachs I feel at times they have been shoveling manure in the faces of the American people - what do you think?
So when there was another snow forecast just yesterday that didn’t materialize, I patted my jacket pocket where I had forlornly placed another $40.00 and breathed a sigh of relief. Also, I checked out the can of Blizzard salt I still have left and realized that I wasn’t going to have to return for another 40 lb. bag which would have been my 4th this year.
Of course, we have yet to get through March, today being only the 4th, and you can never tell. March has been known for a long time to be a great month for a monster snowstorm so I may yet have to haul in another 40 lb. bag of Blizzard and further enrich my grandson before this winter finally bows out sometime in May!
To keep my spirits up, I have been very busy ordering flowers from my favorite online store, QVC. You can get just about anything there, but I have been specifically looking for flowers to be planted in the spring this year. I have ordered 12 miniature rose plants, and just this morning added to that 6 lavender shrubs. Now that I’m older, I’m not as keen to dig in the ground as I once was so I am also thinking large pots that can hold these and that will be easy to move around - with some help, of course, because if the pots are very large that means a lot of dirt and peat moss – heavy stuff to move around the deck and front yard. What I like best about both of these items I have on order is that they will not be sent here until the planting season for my area of the country makes it safe to plant them outside. Also, I like the fact that the miniature roses come in a variety of colors with very little scent so they will not attract the Japanese beetles. I learned my lesson in that regard years ago when I fell in love with some absolutely gorgeous Queen Elizabeth roses at a local Nursery, loaded up, was thrilled with the way they grew and multiplied until July came around. All of a sudden it looked as though I had been attacked by a hoard of locusts, the air was so thick with something, and I watched in horror as not only the roses but all of my plants and shrubs were literally eaten alive by this “thing”. Turns out they were Japanese beetles attracted from miles around by my heavy-scented roses. The following year I dug up the roses and replaced them with flowers that had no scent, but it still took me almost 5 years to “get” the offspring of the beetles that had grubbed their way into the ground the 1st year and sprang to life every July to again eat all of my flowers, and then spawn some more. Finally I got rid of them, and I learned my lesson regarding Queen Elizabeth roses. Unless you are prepared to not just spray and keep re-spraying heavy scented roses and all of the surrounding ground within about 2 acres of them – you will have to decide whether you want beautiful scent or will just settle for color . I have since chosen the latter.
The other flowers coming, lavender, I will have mailed to me around the same time in May. These come in pink, white, as well as purple. I can picture exactly where I shall plant these which will finish my “new look” outside for spring, summer, and fall this year. Both lavender and roses will be in bloom by June and last through October. Being perennial they will, of course, come back year after year bigger each year than the last – just my kind of gardening. In huge pots they can be moved on an outdoor dolly wherever I choose to put them year after year. Now, how’s that for an octogenarian who does not love wallowing in weed control. In pots weeds are far easier to contain or eliminate altogether than in the ground.
So Percy – get over it! Winter has been here since November this year, and I am more than ready to see it go. Spring to me is like a ravishingly beautiful very young woman – the kind we would all like to look like. I’m ready more than usual eagerly awaiting her arrival this year – bring it on! Spring may be when a young man’s fancy turns to love, but for me it’s when my senses, all of them, turn to the incredible renewal of life in the plant world – one can make it a personal Paradise, and I intend doing just that.