The red leaves of Spring

Acer palmatum Red Dragon

This is a small tribute to that week every spring when the leaves on the Japanese maples start opening up, and the the red pigments show up so strongly. I look out my window in the morning and if the eastern sky is bright behind them, the backlighting shows them so beautifully against the pale greens of the other new leaves and the darker greens of the mature foliage. The one above is my dwarf weeper Red Dragon. This is its best year ever.

Acer palmatum Bloodgood

This one is of the pair of Bloodgoods I planted seven years ago. The one on the left had a very bad year before I realized it wasn't getting enough water in the summer, but it didn't die, and since I remedied the watering situation, I've been encouraging it to catch up to its mate.

Acer palmatum Bloodgood

And this is the little one in its close-up, its fifteen seconds of fame. This is its best year ever, too.

Rhododendron Yellow Hammer

Can't have a post without a rhodie photo in it this time of year, so this is my Yellow Hammer, an older variety that I rescued from a going-out-of-business nursery, when it had a cup of soil and roots left in its gallon pot. It's been growing slowly but seems to like where I put it, and this is actually a huge clump of flowers for it.

If everything you planted in a garden automatically did just get more and more beautiful every year, maybe the thrill would wear off after a while. But they don't, so you just can't help being happier and happier about the ones that do make it. The ones that thrive become like special friends, honored companions. And because they get more beautiful every year, so every spring becomes your best year ever.

And I'm happy to say this is mine.