When we look at a photograph of a beautiful flower we can see two dimensions - height and width. When we see nature first hand or view through a stereoscope, depth is added. We need only to open our eyes a bit wider and look a bit closer to see vet another dimension. Perhaps we could call this understanding, or comprehension, or seeing from within. Travelers return from far away places and tell of strange and exotic plants. But often they fail to note nature’s wonders in their own back yards.
If you had gone out last fall (and you could go out this February day) you would have seen short-stemmed knobs, tinted softly green and purple, on the tips of the branches of the dogwood tree. They are flower buds already well formed and ready to burst into bloom the moment spring gives the signal. Although I had passed my dogwood scores of times each winter, it wasn’t until someone told me how well formed the buds were months ahead of time, that my eyes were opened actually to see them.
Go look at the pink snowball (Viburnum carlesi). You find what appears to be undeveloped dead leaves up and down the stem, and many clusters (very unlike the softly colored knobs on the dogwood) of what must be dried buds that failed to open. Watch them when spring comes!
Those dried bud clusters swell into coral-colored buds and later blossom out into pale pink snowballs. The dried leaves grow into lusty foliage.
Our lovely blue bells (Mertensia virignica) go dormant soon after blooming. If we should dig down in midsummer we would find fleshy roots if our eyes were keen for they are very nearly the same color as some of our soil, but they would appear tattered and lifeless. But when we dig down in late fall we find new shoots - practically at soil level - have emerged from those lifeless-looking roots. I had supposed all this growth took place in early spring.
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