The Company of Plants

I knew the frost was coming.

Every day I thought of cutting bunches of the zinnia’s, marigolds and Dahlia’s that still bloomed in my gardens and bring them it not the house.  They would be this years last flowers.

But I couldn’t’ bring myself to cut them, they looked so beautiful just as they were.

I have a single dahlia that miraculously  bloomed after I cut it and one marigold in the old glass inkwell in the bathroom.  Fanny and Lulu are eating the remains of all the other flowers as I write this.

Yesterday was sunny and warm the perfect day  to dig up the dahlia’s, cut back the wilted annuals, hook up the heated bowl for the chickens, bring the potted fig tree into the basement  and do a bunch of other small things that needed to be done to get ready for the winter.

Last week, while the dahlia’s were still blooming, I tied a piece of yarn around the one’s I want to keep for next year.

All the others, which are repeats of the ones I’m keeping, I’ll put in the basement too, and give them away in the spring.  This past spring I put two big bushels of dahlia bulbs in the front yard with a “Free” sign on them and people took them all.

Every year, the dahlia’s bulbs multiply and every year my dahlia garden gets smaller and more selective.

When I’m done with all the gardens outside for the season, I’ll focus again on the plants inside.

I don’t think of myself as a gardener, but I do love the company of plants.  They give back so much in their quiet presence, being green and sometimes flowering throughout the gray winters.  And they need my nurturing as much as I need to nurture.