January Bloom

I was in the gardens yesterday, tidying up, picking the pieces of broken bottles and last-night’s fast food trays from the beds.

These are pubic gardens, set in a square in the center of town. We live on the square. I can look out my windows and watch them from above, re-think them, dream, fantasize about what I might plant in the empty spaces.  I care for three of the fifteen beds that surround the neo-Romanesque church at the center of the square and I visit them just about every day, for the joy of it and from necessity.  Our visitors are not always thoughtful about taking their trash with them when they go, preferring to toss it into the flower beds.

When I visit I touch the plants, check them for broken parts, disease, growth. I am often surprised by returning varieties that have lain dormant for so long I don’t remember planting them, if I ever did.  Some I imagine are gifts from the birds. 

During the last six months or so, I have observed some puzzling developments.  My Lilac trees bloomed two months ago, the tulips are coming up and yesterday I noticed new buds forming on the roses.  Not one or two plants, but all the roses.  All of them sported new and prolific growth. 

It is January. I can’t imagine what April will look like.  What will happen to this new growth?  If any of my readers have experienced something similar, I would be pleased to know your experience and any advice you might have.