The Weather Vane

New Year New Dreams New Flowers

Another year has come and gone. And so we find ourselves upon the threshold of a brand new 365 days days which we cannot hoard or save but must spend, wisely or otherwise, each as it comes along. What we do with these days one by one, as they slip irretrievably through our fingers will determine to a large extent what we are to get out of the many months and years to follow.

This is of course, by custom, the season for making good resolutions, mostly concerning rather trivial matters, which are not taken too seriously. Perhaps one will stop (for a week or two) smoking cigarettes, or putting cream in the coffee, being late with regular tasks or losing the weight.

There is, however, one good resolution which every home owner may well keep, and that is: Make plans instead of resolutions. Map out, for the coming twelve months, at least one project which will be of permanent value. Only thus, when the year closes, shall we find the dream which each one of us has concerning the kind of a place we would like eventually to create at least one step nearer realization.

Such dreams, of course, we all possess, or perhaps more accurately, they possess us. It is the capacity to dream, to dream of changes he can make in his environment, that distinguishes the species homo sapiens from all other creatures inhabiting the earth. But to let the dream end as a dream gets us nowhere; and to dream too vastly and too vaguely only invites inevitable disaster. And so the wise procedure is to spike down one dream at a time, and then follow it through even though occasionally it may assume the proportions of a nightmare rather than a dream.

Take a half hour off sometime, perhaps when you have finished reading this, and sort out your dreams. Maybe youve been thinking of a small pool for your garden in order that you might have the charm of a few water plants and a mirror to reflect the changing sky; or a little rock garden in a sheltered nook, where very early bulbs and perennials will bring you, even before winters end, a preview of spring; or a real rose garden where the majestic rose can be given the special care she requires to be at her regal best.

No, it makes little difference what the dream is., The important thing is to isolate it from a dozen other dreams, to make it concrete and specific. That is the first real step toward making it come true, in this very year of grace. So much for you and the New Year. Now let me speak for a moment about some other dreamers the dreamers of new flowers who work tirelessly, often for years on end, to make their visions come true.

Take the case of the so called Gloriosa daisies most important, it seems to me, of all the flowers that will bid for the gardeners attention this season. For forty two years the man who developed this comely giant “daisy” from a common wayside weed labored on patiently to achieve his dream and give the garden world-and arrangers, too a startlingly beautiful new flower.

Some of the more elderly among you will remember the old weedy and scraggly Star phlox, occasionally grown for its quaint pointed petaled flowers. Here, too, someone has worked long and patiently to achieve an award-winner, compact in growth and literally everblooming. And there are many other examples of tropical outdoor plants, such as new varieties of pink trumpet lilies, of these dreamers dreams that have at last come true.

Try some of these new things in your garden this year and thus share in the dreams of others. But above all, dont forget your own!