Quotations for Autumn Gardens

It's been a gloomy, wet dreary day today -- quite appropriate for the first day of November but not conducive to getting out and working in the garden.

So instead I've been sitting indoors reading, doing crossword puzzles, and trying to decide what to blog about today. I have mentioned in my blog before that I enjoy collecting quotations, especially those about gardening and the seasons. It seems that other people are far more eloquent than I on the subject, so I'm going to include some in today's post.

Oh how we love pumpkin season. You did know this gourd-ish squash has its own season, right? Winter, Spring, Summer, Pumpkin.... We anxiously anticipate it every year.
~~ Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, October 2010

Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.
~~ Jim Bishop

...I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
~~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, 10th October 1842

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came,—
The Ashes, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The sunshine spread a carpet,
And every thing was grand;
Miss Weather led the dancing;
Professor Wind, the band....
The sight was like a rainbow
New-fallen from the sky....
~~ George Cooper (1840–1927), "October's Party," c.1887

Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.
~~ Faith Baldwin, American Family

It is a delightful pastime to sit in the pleasant sunshine of autumn, and gazing from this little spot of free earth over such a landscape, let the imagination luxuriate amid the thrilling associations of the scene!
~~ H.T. Tuckerman, "San Marino"

'Tis Autumn! and the short'ning day,
The chilly evening's sober gray,
And winds that hoarser blow;
The fading foliage of the trees,
Which rustles sere in every breeze,
The approach of Winter show.
~~ Bernard Barton, "Stanzas on the Approach of Winter" 1822

Of all the seasons, autumn offers the most to man and requires the least of him.
~~Hal Borland

Just after the death of the flowers,
And before they are buried in snow,
There comes a festival season,
When nature is all aglow—
Aglow with a mystical spendour
That rivals the brightness of spring,
Aglow with a beauty more tender
Than aught which fair summer could bring....
~~Emeline B. Smith, "Indian Summer"

I walked alone in the depths of Autumn woods;
The ruthless winds had left the maple bare;
The fern was withered, and the sweetbrier's breath
No longer gave its fragrance to the air.
~~Albert Laighton (1829–1887), "In the Woods," c.1859


For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.
~Edwin Way Teale, Autumn Across America



If you're wondering where the lovely animated gifs came from, I found them on a Russian website at http://www.gifprikol.com. And before you ask -- no, I can't read Russian, but since the website provides the code to copy and paste in to your blog, or on Facebook, I'm assuming it's okay to share them, with the appropriate link!!

Springtime Quotes for the Gardener

When I got home from work last night, I took a tentative stroll around the garden to see if anything else is coming to life in the back garden.  I was particularly worried about the Flame acanthus and the Rose of Sharon that I had brought from my previous house. 

That Rose of Sharon had done so well last summer, did it make it through the freeze?  As recently as this past weekend, I would have said "no" -- there were no apparent signs of life, in spite of all the other buds I was able to blog about last week.

But as I approached the Flame acanthus, I was thrilled to see some tiny specks of green down at ground level. I had hope it might be root hardy, and it seems it was.  But, more than that, closer inspection revealed little buds of green all over it.  I don't have to cut it back to the ground after all!

And the Rose of Sharon, apparently dead sticks last weekend, is now covered in leaf buds from top to bottom!

I didn't get any photos yesterday evening, but I'll be sure and take some photos to document their progress.

In celebration of the new life in my garden, I thought I'd share some favorite gardening quotes about spring.

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No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.  -- Proverb

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold:  when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.  -- Charles Dickens

I love spring everywhere, but if I could choose, I would always greet it in a garden. -- Ruth Stout

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. -- Anne Bradstreet

Yesterday the twig was brown and bare;
To-day the glint of green is there;
Tomorrow will be leaflets spare;
I know no thing so wondrous fair,
No miracle so strangely rare.
I wonder what will next be there!
-- L.H. Bailey

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.  -- Terri Guillemets

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another.  The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.  -- Henry Van Dyke

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.  -- Mark Twain

The naked earth is warm with Spring,
And with green grass and bursting trees
Leans to the sun's kiss glorying,
And quivers in the sunny breeze.
-- Julian Grenfell

Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer.  -- Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

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I hope you enjoyed these quotes.  Do you have a favorite quote about spring? Add it here in the comments, so we can all share it.

Quotations for Winter Gardens

Originally posted on my Green and Serene blog at HoustonGrows

One of my hobbies, other than gardening, is collecting quotations. It seems that others can often say things so much more eloquently than I can. Here are some poems and quotations about winter and the garden. I hope you enjoy them.

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"The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination." ~Ward Elliot Hour

"The shortest day has passed, and whatever nastiness of weather we may look forward to in January and February, at least we notice that the days are getting longer. Minute by minute they lengthen out. It takes some weeks before we become aware of the change. It is imperceptible even as the growth of a child, as you watch it day by day, until the moment comes when with a start of delighted surprise we realize that we can stay out of doors in a twilight lasting for another quarter of a precious hour." ~Vita Sackville-West

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show." ~Andrew Wyeth

"Bare branches of each tree
on this chilly January morn
look so cold so forlorn.
Gray skies dip ever so low
left from yesterday's dusting of snow.
Yet in the heart of each tree
waiting for each who wait to see
new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,
like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,
buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow."
- Nelda Hartmann, January Morn

"Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius." ~Pietro Aretino

"Every winter,
When the great sun has turned his face away,
The earth goes down into a vale of grief,
And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables,
Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay -
Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses."
~Charles Kingsley

"Winter came down to our home one night
Quietly pirouetting in on silvery-toed slippers of snow,
And we, we were children once again."
~Bill Morgan, Jr.

"In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy." ~William Blake

"Of winter's lifeless world each tree
Now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer's secret
Deep down within its heart."
~Charles G. Stater

"Nature has undoubtedly mastered the art of winter gardening and even the most experienced gardener can learn from the unrestrained beauty around them."

~Vincent A. Simeone