The meadow perplex: messy democracy in the garden

 

Subalpine meadow en route to Engineer Peak in the San Juans, July 2021

I have hundreds, maybe THOUSANDS of photographs of meadows, nearly all of them disappointing. Few phenomena are more all encompassing, more exhilarating, more thrilling than being in a flowery meadow on a summer's day, your hair lightly tousled by the wind and a million colorful flowers gently swaying around you, casting their fragrance and their spell in the air. You snap a picture: ...meh...looks so blah! Such is the messy inefficiency of democracy. Dazzling in concept, flawed in execution. At least when translated to photography!

Castilleja integra (and Opuntia debrezyi 'Potato) at APEX Simms street in Arvada, CO

But take one of those flowers and nestle it between stones in a rock garden, and PRESTO! it pops out like Lady Gaga in a tight swimming suit bursting our of a wedding cake (you get the image and can almost hear her singing to boot!). Such is the power of the single image. Dictatorship really...no wonder we love rock gardens! (My jury's out on Lady Gaga--except when she sings with Tony Bennett; or the National anthem)

Vignette from Vail of Geum coccineum  Myosotis sp. and Mertensia ciliata in one of the borders there

The perennial border can capture the mood of a meadow in vignettes: the Betty Ford Alpine Garden in Vail is chockablock full of idealized bits of meadows here and there: rather like republican government (emphatically NOT "Republican Party government"--which is an oxymoron)--representative of a meadow, but not really democracy--the wild rabble in a mass of expressive glory!

An astonishing and unphotographable meadow in Ludlow, Washington 

More and more gardeners across north America, inspired by the bold thinking of a new wave of thinkers and designers (Douglas Tallamy playing the trumpet, with Larry Weaner and Tom Christopher banging on drums, and a host of prairie meisters like Neil Diboll, Roy Diblik in the vanguard--and Kelly Norris wearing tall white drum major hat twirling a baton at least 30 feet in the air....Lady Gaga and Madonna both can't be far behind! The image may be indelible, but the execution is democratic!)

Linda Cochran's garden utterly dazzled me last June: but like all meadows, it eluded my camera. If you see her pictures in the latest NARGS Quarterly you'll know why I fell in love with her work: if you don't belong, do join immediately and you too can see them (otherwise you'll have to wait four years--you can view the old Quarterly bulletins for free after four years!)

Bighorn meadow chockablock full of tiny shooting stars...

How utterly sad that one of the most dazzling vistas I have ever seen is completely obscured by this horrible picture: there had to be tens if not hundreds of thousands of Dodecatheon watsonii--which of course has been gobbled up by D. pulchellum, which should probably actually be D. puberulum--but they're all really just Primula sp. (Primula radicatum perhaps?) Talk about a mess! Just like meadows!

Saxifraga rhomboidea (Micranthes rhomboidea)

On that same field trip to the Bighorns we came across a corner of a meadow carpeted with saxifrage--usually found on rocky habitats--but obviously happy in a meadow...

This year, the North American Rock Garden Society has explored important but neglected arenas of gardening: a fantastic webinar on Woodland Gardening was staged in November, and one on Succulents last month. the Final Webinar of this winter will take place on February 19 with a fantastic lineup of speakers from Across North America, England and Germany. Click here for more information on this conference and these speakers...you can sign up and view any or all of these at your convenience, by the way! 

The creation of urban meadows is perhaps the most exciting and environmentally significant movement in horticulture today--especially in the thirsty Western United States and Canada...although the environmental benefits in more humid climates are great as well indeed. These cutting edge speakers will not only convince you, but present a rich palette of options and choices, and help you too create a meadow somewhere on your property--no matter how small. Even if you'd never thought to do so before!

Perhaps it's time to bring back some democracy to our gardens--not to mention our countries!