Like clockwork, the bright and sunny blooms of the evening primrose (Oenothera fruticosa) appeared almost to the day that summer begins. Also known as sundrops, these plants have a grandly exuberant flowering right now, and will occasionally repeat the show in smaller scale as the summer progresses. (Such floriferous behavior often wears itself out in this first showing, so enjoy it now as a second show is not always guaranteed.)
They bring to mind this song about “the place with the yellow flowers” which kicked off our summer season here a couple of years ago. When toying with a theme to get my head around this summer, I found my memory jogged all the way back to 1990, but that feels like an undertaking to which I may not have the time, stamina, or ambition to properly commit. It was probably one of my most favorite summers ever, and in some way I’ve tried to return to it too many times to have it mean much at this point.
In the meantime, there is all this sunniness, coming from the ground up, as storms and showers line the foreseeable future in the sky. Summer has begun in restless and uncertain terms, so I’m taking the sunniness wherever I may find it.
