Winter Words of Wisdom

This winter I have been reading some garden writer’s words of wisdom, which now I will share with you. In 1899, Gertrude Jekyll wrote: “For I hold it that the best purpose of a garden is to give delight and to give refreshment of mind, to soothe, to refine and to lift up the heart.”And Sara Stein in 1988 wrote:“January is the best time for gardeners. From the window of the attic where I write, the gardens are bare to their bones, neat and clean, nicely edged, weed free. They are an empty page on which to draw the garden of my dreams.” And in 1954 Georgia O’Keefe, who painted so many glorious flowers, wrote the following words that completely surprised me. She said, “I hate flowers. I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t move.” More profound are the words spoken by Lydia Child in 1842. She said, “Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell. They are hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all for the beauty of their character. Though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.”However, “anonymous” has the last piece of wisdom for us:“In gardening I have one gift you won’t find in manuals, but I can change perennials into annuals.”