Gardens – Page 4 – Gemma D. Alexander

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The Tree is the View

I love this giant tree across the street from my house. It reminds me of the camphor tree in My Neighbor Totoro.

Every time the house has changed hands I’ve held my breath in terror. There is something in human nature that makes us want to cut down all the trees when we take over new land. Especially here in Seattle, when even a sliver of water makes people break laws to “improve the view.” In their minds, the view never includes the foreground, which usually consists of denuded hillsides and ugly rooftops once the trees are gone.

So far, each new owner has taken good care of this big, beautiful tree. I’m so grateful that my neighbors understand the tree is the view. I wish more people did.

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Ewan McGregor, magnolia, Scotland, star magnolia

A Star (Magnolia)

“It looks like Scotland!” is a joke in my family. In Long Way Round, whenever Ewan McGregor is impressed, he says, “It’s beautiful! It looks like Scotland!” Such home-pride is sweet in a major international star, especially since Scotland probably doesn’t show up on many shortlists of “The World’s Most Beautiful Places.” But maybe he’s not so far off base. My springtime visit to Scotland in 1998 was a kind of aesthetic awakening for me.

On that trip I developed a taste for peaty whisky. I visited the Mackintosh House where, despairing of ever achieving such orderliness in my own home, I still brought back a dedication to black and white grids, roses, and checkered lilies. I visited the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Edinburgh, where the star of the show for me was this small tree, the star magnolia. I didn’t know it at the time, but star magnolias are actually pretty common trees. I see them all over Seattle, and I doubt that they were all planted after my trip to Scotland. But for some reason, I only saw the beauty after I saw Scotland.

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daffodils, Wordsworth

Lonely Daffodils

No host here, but even a lonely daffodil can fill the heart with pleasure.

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

— William Wordsworth

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native plants, salmonberry

Salmonberry

Himalayan blackberry is everywhere in the Pacific Northwest. It’s the tastiest noxious weed ever, so it’s hard to get too upset about it. But it does displace some native species that also deserve our love. Case in point: salmonberry. Probably named for orangey-pink of its berries, salmon berry is much prettier than blackberry. Maybe the berries are not as tasty, but the prickles are less vicious. And they do belong here.

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native plants, violets

Shy Violets

Violets are an old fashioned flower that seem to be coming back into fashion. It’s funny that such a small, demure flower should be bred into the showy pansy popular at hardware stores. I like those too, but I prefer the original woodland flower. Bonus points for the Pacific Northwest native variety.

Category Archive Gardens

The Tree is the View

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A Star (Magnolia)

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Lonely Daffodils

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Shy Violets

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Category Archive Gardens

The Tree is the View

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A Star (Magnolia)

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Lonely Daffodils

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Salmonberry

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Shy Violets

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