OUTLOOK
ISSN 0969-1049 INCORPORATING THE SWEDENBORG MOVEMENT NEWSLETTER
Horticultural Homilies No. 10
Promise of Spring
Dorothy Turner
- Levitas
- WB Yeats and Swedenborg
- Books that might have been
- A town built on a hill
- Keeping the score
- The Big Bang
- Jesus, man or God ? the Easter Question
- Promise of Spring
- Science and truth
- The Millennium
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The first frost of Autumn sends gardeners out to dig up dahlias and tuberous begonias, and bring them into a frost-free place for winter hibernation. This is quite a problem for flat-dwellers, as centrally heated buildings are too warm, and garages can be too cold, but I have found that a communal cupboard under the stairs where the cleaner keeps her materials has room for a small paper sack labelled "Begonias - R I P until March".
One year, when I had my own garden, I was digging up dahlias in October and was surprised to find tulip bulbs already growing above the ground to a height of four inches (which I suppose I should call 10cm.). Could they possibly survive the Winter? They did! I have read that the growing tip of a bulb leaf is better able to stand cold that an older leaf, since it contains a more concentrated sugary sap - rather like a car's anti-freeze. This explains why snowdrops are able to push through snow, but I never cease to wonder at the 'will to live' shown by every species as it comes to growth at the right season.
Despite the lovely colours of Autumn, many people call it a sad time, and when they do, I like to show them next year's buds and catkins, already formed on the twig even before the old leaves drop off. What better promise of Spring could we find?
Some of you who are reading this may be, like me, in the Autumn of life. We may have to concentrate some sweetness to see us through a Winter of inactivity due to failing physical powers, but if our 'buds' have been well prepared in our more active days, our awakening to the Eternal Spring will be truly joyful.
