Tuesday’s visit to the botanical garden was bright and sunny, and we enjoyed seeing the gentle, even light of the approaching equinox illuminating grasses, spring ephemerals, and shrub buds and blooms. Every year before spring arrives there are controlled burns in some of the piedmont and coastal plain gardens, and we happened to catch sight of one that day. We even spotted a squirrel along a path, so busy eating a bundle of plant stocks and leaves that he didn’t notice how close we were to him.
I can scroll and worry indoors, or I can step outside and remember how it feels to be part of something larger, something timeless, a world that reaches beyond me and includes me, too. The spring ephemerals have only the smallest window for blooming, and so they bloom when the sunlight reaches them. Once the forest becomes enveloped in green and the sunlight closes off again, they will wait for the light to come back.
~ Margaret Renkl
(The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year)
By Chivalries as tiny,
A Blossom, or a Book,
The seeds of smiles are planted —
Which blossom in the dark.
~ Emily Dickinson
(The Poems of Emily Dickinson, #37)
The native wildflowers and grasses in these gardens beds evolved with periodic wildfires, which keep trees and shrubs from growing in and return nutrients to the soil. In a few weeks, new growth will be emerging from the ashes.
~ North Carolina Botanical Garden
(Facebook, March 10, 2025)
So many simple ‘chivalries’ exist and noticing even a few of them can bring us great pleasure and help us to ‘remember how it feels to be a part of something larger.’
Ahhhh, signs of spring! I love them. We are just starting to see small buds on trees and small bits of green poking up from the ground. I hope you and your family are not in the path of the horrible sounding weather happening in the south right now.
That weather is supposed to reach us today and we are under a wind advisory, but it doesn’t look like it will be as severe when it has been farther west. I remember skunk cabbage coming up early in spring in New England but they don’t have it down here. I kind of miss seeing it. Enjoy your spring blossoms!
Delightful post, Barbara, I love seeing all the signs of spring!
Thank you, Eliza! Our second spring here is starting to feel more familiar.
I would appreciate information on the NC Carolina Garden. I am a new resident in Chapel Hill. I have so enjoyed your essays. They provide peace and a place to take a deep breath..
Thank you so much, Gini! Here is the link to the botanical garden’s website:
https://ncbg.unc.edu/
It’s free to visit. If you would like to come with us on one of our visits you can get our phone numbers from Larisa and let us know.
You have plenty of Spring-y wildflowers but nothing here yet, save for those Snowdrops in the homeowners front yard the next street over, but they come in the snow sometimes. We have controlled burns in Michigan sometimes – one got away from them a few years ago, but they finally put it out. We’re having very high winds and a storm is imminent, so I just popped over to Twitter/X to see what the National Weather Service says as they’re playing basketball on my all-news AM radio news station. I was amazed to see the wildfire damage in Stillwater, Oklahoma – I heard nothing at all about this and 200 homes are destroyed, residents escaping with the clothes on their back. Just add weather angst along to assorted other angst right now. Good luck with your severe weather tomorrow.
I hadn’t heard about the wildfires in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Sigh. With climate change upon us I suppose it’s just a matter of time before any one of us will have the same horrors to deal with. It makes me feel like there’s no point in accumulating anything when overnight a fire or a flood can destroy everything a person has worked hard for. It’s a weird feeling, enjoying spring’s beauty, yet at the same time being aware that it’s warmer than it should be and that catastrophic dangers are lurking in the background, filling ordinary days with a sense of foreboding.
That’s exactly how I feel Barbara. When it suddenly got so warm here, that was unnatural, so I knew there would be storm issues. It was 50 degrees when I got up this morning and we will have some snowflakes, maybe a light wintry mix overnight and 20 degrees tomorrow morning. It’s those stats which really solidify my decision not to plant again. I won’t lose plants/bushes again and it’s not just the four different brutally cold temperature events, not even counting the Polar Vortex in mid-January, but it’s the prediction for a very rainy Spring and another very hot Summer. This is not enjoyable weather for being out in nature either and being a constant weather worrier is mentally stressful.
We got a tornado watch but thankfully nothing came of it. Thunderstorms in the morning and again in the evening, but nothing too severe. A friend of ours gave us a shoot with roots off of her Japanese camellia a couple of weeks ago. It is supposed to be deer resistant, but not deer proof because they will eat the leaves if they’re hungry. After about a week I guess the deer found it because I found several of the leaves were chewed off, but some parts of leaves were left on the ground, uneaten. A neighbor thinks they tried it and didn’t like it and moved on. I hope so! It will be interesting to see how the little shrub does.
That’s good about the weather Barbara. We have another similar-type storm Wednesday night. So far it is western Michigan, but that could change as we get closer. Then that cold front will bring a possible wintry mix Thursday.
I just Googled Japanese camelia – very pretty. Those darn deer – so pretty to see them around your place, but a pain when you try to grow plants. Does it have to be brought inside to overwinter? My friend in NY had issues with deer eating all her plants, flowers or otherwise. They really liked hostas and she had berry plants which she’d never get a single berry – if the deer didn’t get them, the raccoons did.
The Japanese camellia my friend has is planted in the ground and remains there year-round. But she does live in more of a city area and never sees deer. I feel for your friend. It seems like the folks around here are experts at planting deer-proof plants in their gardens and landscapes. Time will tell if my little camellia will do well here in this neighborhood.
Did your friend’s Japanese camellia withstand your somewhat harsh Winter you had – I hope so. Well, perhaps the deer will be tempted with other goodies now that Spring vegetation will soon be in abundance, and they’ll leave your ornamental plant alone.
I love the quote by Margaret Renkl. I’ve been looking for that book, but thus far, I haven’t found a copy. I’ll still keep looking though! Your early Spring flowers are lovely — so many different shapes and colors to feast one’s eyes on! I’m eagerly waiting for my own forsythia to bloom — it’s still a bit early for that, but our gorgeous weather last week had everybody anticipating Spring!
I had to put The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year on hold at the library and then wait for a couple of months before my turn came to check it out. Once I got it the due date was sooner than the usual, so it must be pretty popular. I do love the early arrival of spring down south here, but wish it didn’t lead to the brutally hot summer. So happy to hear you had some gorgeous weather to enjoy while you wait for spring to begin in earnest!
Look at that squirrel! Amazing photo. I also long to see some weeping forsythia around here. That’s when I know for sure that spring has sprung.
Thank you, Ally! Yellow is my least favorite color but I have to admit that it feels like sunshine so forsythia is a welcome sight when spring arrives. Hope you’re seeing some soon.
Lovely post and photos, Barbara! So many beautiful wild flowers already, so nice!
Thank you so much, Donna!