Katy's Vineyard

We planted snow peas along the chain-link fences, Janice thought we’re kind and generous to share with the deer.  We have created a Katy’s Vineyard (of course, inspired by Martha’s Vineyard) in the rear of the garden.  This will be the home of all the vines, thus Vineyard.  The task of setting up posts is almost complete.  As time goes by, Katy will connect the posts with ropes, wires or sticks to make a complex trellis.

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One cannot eat beauty; beauty cannot be served on dinner table (漂亮不能吃, 漂亮不能上桌)

We have posted the beautiful spring flowers so many times, ignoring the snow peas (雪豆) growing diligently along the chain-link fences. They lost their patience and shouted “Hey! We’re here!” 

The snow peas must be Taiwanese as they remind me of a Taiwanese saying, “漂亮有什麼用? 漂亮又不能吃, 漂亮又不能上桌” (Can you put beauty into good use? One cannot eat beauty; beauty cannot be served on dinner table!)

The love story in our garden

Katy spotted this ‘lovers tulip” (one half is yellow, the other red) in our garden; it is apparently a ‘love child’ (愛情的結晶) of two tulips in love.  One doesn’t have to be a detective to ‘round up the usual suspects”; one looks to the right and to the left, there they are.  Upon questioning, they say they didn’t do it; they are 'innocent', but I notice the one “puts on her carmine suit’ blushes while denying it.

One may blush reading what Emily Dickinson wrote about the garden scene; the same is also true in our garden if one can fire up one’s imagination.  It is a LOVEly garden, indeed.

The following is Dickinson’s luscious poem of a garden scene.

A Bee his burnished Carriage

Drove boldly to a Rose –

Combinedly alighting –

Himself – his Carriage was –

The Rose received his visit

With frank tranquility

Withholding not a Crescent

To his Cupidity –

Their moment consummated –

Remained for him – to flee –

Remained for her – of rapture

But the humility

Night view of KATY tulips

Love is a 24-hour job; it can be seen and felt day and night, so is the KATY tulips in our garden.  The lighting comes from the plant fluorescent lights upstairs.

 

My “signature” photo

Katy is a news reporter/photographer for the World Journal and tends to get the credit of taking good photo.  I took this picture with my ‘signature’; shall we say this is my “signature” photo :- )

Peak of spring bloom in our garden

These photos were taken today (4/22/13) showing all the tulips running riot in the spring sun.  This is the peak of the spring bloom, which is defined by 70-80% of the flowers in full blossom.  Above and below KATY tulips, there are paperwhites and hyacinths, which have since been fading away, losing their luster.

To paraphrase Emily Dickinson, I said,

Prithee (= Pray thee = please), my friends,
Into our garden, come!

On growing love (on growing KATY)

Love at first sight (一見鍾情) is romantic and beautiful, but is not the true and enduring love unless it keeps growing with patience; it is more sensual than sensuous.

Gardening is a labor of love; it is for body (tilting, setting up the fences and carrying the paving stones for physical fitness) and mind (reading and writing) and heart and soul.

I planted KATY of tulips with love, confidence

and “Audacity of Hope” (it was an election season then) last November.  Love in life is rarely a smooth ride and love in garden is no exception.  The planted tulips lived through the bitter cold and snow, enduring the freezing temperature on many agonizing nights; they survived and thrived. 

“Gardening is a way of showing you believe in tomorrow”, so I waited patiently to see the ‘love’ of KATY budding, growing and now blooming.

Our tulips “put on carmine suit!”

Tulips galore! A sea of tulips in our spring garden; this is their moment; the scene is inviting, inviting us to take photos.  I am hoping you’re not tired of seeing so many photos of tulips.  But, if one is tired of these beautiful things, one is tired of living.

Emily Dickinson’s floral poems are oftentimes subtle; the theme hidden or implicit. The following is about her tulips and their responsiveness to her affection.  No doubt our tulips also recognize our footstep and some of the “bright red” ones have put on their “carmine suit”.

She slept beneath a tree
Remembered but by me.
I touched her cradle mute;
She recognized the foot,
Put on her carmine suit, --
And see!

 

“Put on her carmine suit” sheds further light that most of Emily’s tulips are red; we have more varieties this year. Carmine is a natural food red coloring, so “put on her carmine suit” is her blooming red tulips.

 

Emily Dickinson’s tulips and ours

Two years ago I used the tulips at Phipps Garden to match a tulip poem of Emily Dickinson.  Now we have an army of tulips (“Without Commander! Countless! Still!” like military ‘Regiments”) coloring our garden. I revise the post using the same poem.  I delete the old one, lest people may say I begin to “repeat myself”.

Without Commander! Countless! Still!
The Regiments of Wood and Hill
In bright detachments stand!
Behold, Whose multitude are these?
The Children of whose turbaned seas —
Or what Circassian Land?

On a quick glance, it looks like Emily was writing about the Turkish soldiers; she didn’t even write about the Civil War through which she lived, let alone the far away Turkish army. This is why her poem is at times difficult to grasp.

The tulip was introduced to Europe then Netherlands in an area known as “Circassia”; a region between Black Sea and the Greater Caucasus that was ceded by Turkey to Russia in 1820s. This may be why they were called “Turkish tulips”.

Emily saw an army of tulips coloring the Wood and Hill in Amherst when spring came. The “Turkish tulips” reminded her of the Turkish people whose men (soldiers) were “turbaned”. Circassian Land was where tulips abound; Circassian women were famous for their beauty, matching that of tulip.

Tulips “run riot in the spring sunshine”

The hyacinths in our garden have seen their peak; the tulips are coming out to say hello before they fade away.  We have at least six varieties of tulips “running riot in the spring sunshine” today.

Working in the garden many hours a day, building the roads, preparing for our “summer residents”, I hardly have time posting the spring garden photos that change daily, if not hourly.

杞人憂天: Unnecessary fear/worry

Our garden has seen several springs; the daffodils, tulips and hyacinths have been tricked to come out very early, only to be buried by snow, not once but several times; they also endured the freezing temperature on many agonizing nights. 

We’ve been worrying about the chance of their survival, let alone blooming.  It turned out we’re 杞人憂天 (Man of Qi fears the sky falling): a Chinese idiom means “unnecessary fear/worry”. 

Ladies and gentlemen, meet our hyacinths—the ethereal beauty.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is KATY!

This is KATY! I am introducing KATY tulips in our garden; the flowers, not Katy.  But, then again both are flowers.