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Are the trees starting to bud or am I
imagining things? And, no, I haven't been drinking when I noticed
this.
- Joe Kuskowski, February Rambles
-
There is always in February some one
day, at least, when one smells the yet distant, but surely coming,
summer.
- Gertrude Jekyll -
First an artist, Jekyll moved into garden design
as her eyesight failed. We may owe our inheritance
of Jekyll innovations to the extra sensory appeal of spring.
The most serious charge which
can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February.
... Spring is too far away to comfort by anticipation, and winter
long ago lost the charm of novelty.
- Joseph Wood Krutch, The Twelve
Seasons, 1949 -
Bless that good ol' Equinox -- the
plants have come to life again. It's so nice to watch them all
turning toward the sun at their summertime rate (rather than therir
slow weak winter wobblings) -- a reminder that we're all stretching
for the light again.
- Sonja Nikkila -
What's Coming Up #198, Spring Acceleration
Gardening is the most ephemeral art. A
garden is in constant flux, season to season and moment to
moment.
- Will & Ariel Durant, founders of Smith & Hawken -
see What's Coming Up #110
Last night, there came a frost,
which has done great damage to my garden. It is sad that Nature
will play such tricks with us poor mortals.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne -
'Hurrah! Blister my kidneys,' exclaimed he in delight. 'It is a
frost! - the dahlias are dead.'
- R.S. Surtees, Handley Cross, 1843
-
Sometimes terrible weather is, sometimes it isn't. There are
autumns when we just need to have Nature take things out of our
hands. Really, we were tired of the dahlias despite their beauty.
Frost can release us.
A year without its winter would seem
all wrong to me... It is a necessity, not just a necessary
evil.
- Christopher Lloyd -
see What's Coming Up #71
A garden in winter is the absolute
test of the true gardener.
- Rosemary Verey, in The Garden
in Winter -
see What's Coming Up #71
It is in midwinter that I sometimes
glean from my pines... a curious transfusion of courage.
- Aldo Leopold, in A Sand County
Almanac -
see What's Coming Up #72
Above: Jack pine needles, leatherleaf Viburnum
(V. x rhytidophylloides) and spring witchhazel hybrid
(Hamamelis x mollis 'Jelena')
Winter's palette is clear and spare,
restrictive enough to curb the excesses of even the most daring
gardeners.
- Rosemary Verey, in The Garden
in Winter -
see What's Coming Up #72
I cannot endure to waste anything as
precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I
spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne -
see What's Coming Up
#161
Don't worry, it always comes. Call it Indian summer or whatever.
There are always a few days of beautiful weather
after Veteran's Day.
- Marya Macunovich -
see What's Coming Up #163
Delicious autumn! My very soul is
wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth

seeking the successive autumns.
- George Eliot -
see What's Coming Up
#161
It was one of those perfect English
autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in
life.
- P. D. James -
see What's Coming Up
#170
There is always in February some one day, at least, when one
smells the yet distant, but surely coming, summer.
- Gertrude Jekyll -
see Houseplants' Spring Revival in What's Coming
Up #198
One
of the frustrations of my job was not being able to say, "I'm
sorry, I can't cover this cosmic event on the other side of the
world, because I have to go watch my daffodils bloom."
Charles Kuralt, retired TV newsman,
Charles Kuralt's America, 1995 -
..
.