These beauties showed up at my weekly visit to Faddegon’s, and I was reminded that I need to plant more of them outside. This is the Lenten rose; one of the first bloomers in the perennial border, they also have handsome and stalwart foliage that lasts and maintains its beauty throughout the entire season. In milder winters, some of it remains evergreen. We don’t have many mild winters in these parts, so by spring much of their evergreen tendencies have been worn to tattered and torn bits. I find it better to clip those off entirely so the plant can focus all its energy into new growth. Such is the brutal way of the garden.
Back when I first planted the lone specimen we have in the backyard, my preferences were for shades of bright pink, speckled or striped petals, and the usual circus-like atmosphere of color and spectacle I favored a couple of decades ago. Now I find myself more drawn to the cream and soft green blooms that the genus offers, and will look to put on in this coming season. I wish I’d gotten to it sooner – they take several years to settle in and bloom, especially if they’re young, or gone through some trauma (such as transplanting tends to inflict). Even in this unsteady world, it feels good to plan for the future, just a bit.
