Without skipping over spring, that glorious season of renewed hope and rebirth, my heart has lately been pining for summer, so I picked up these Stargazer lilies to fill the living room with the scent of sunny days. They recall our first summer at our home, when I planted a few of these in the backyard, when I was just starting to fill in the space with plants and trees of our own. Back then, much of the yard was overrun with a tangled mass of pachysandra that just have been years in the making. They would take years of unmaking as well, and there are still patches of it that remain uneradicated. I’ve left it alone where nothing else will grow, but they are constantly on notice, encroaching as they do into the more refined and cultivated sections of the yard. Gardening requires such strictness.
As for the Stargazer lily, they would last a few years, always a few more than expected, and I’d thrill at their buds and sweetly-perfumed flowers when they’d appear mid-summer, but eventually they would peter out, sending up only a stalk or two of foliage as other plants overtook their place. It may be time to put a few more in, and start the cycle of summer surprise again.
