Chalices of gold
The first time I saw California poppies was at the farm of my old hippie
pals Chuck and Chuck, a longtime gay couple in Madison, Wisconsin. It
was over 20 years ago now. I had gone to visit them one summer, child of
the East that I was; it was the first time I encountered comfrey, in
white, red, or purple; alfalfa, in all the colors of the rainbow;
pineapple weed (Matricaria matricarioides), smelling like pineapple and
apples when crushed under foot in the gravel of their driveway, and of
course eschscholtzias. There was a drift of them near the hot tub (the
first hot tub I had ever seen or heard of), spilled like tiny gold
chalices over the rough grey wooden boarding of the deck, and I could
not believe my eyes. I see them now and shrug, or pass them and dont
even notice. This is not a good sign, for a gardener.
Rand B. Lee, Freelance Writer & Editor
Founder and President, The American Dianthus Society
Founder and President, The North American Cottage Garden Society
Member, Garden Writers Association of America
Author, PLEASURES OF THE COTTAGE GARDEN (Michael Friedman Publishers)
randbear@nets.com
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"It is only when the prisoner realizes he is in for a life sentence that
he begins to
decorate his cell and make friends with the guard." --Chogyam Trungpa
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PLEASURES OF THE COTTAGE GARDEN by Rand Lee, copyright 1998, ISBN
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