LOOK PAST THE NEGATIVE

          After the winter I look so forward to spring.  When everything becomes green again and life returns to the barren landscape.  For years I equated Spring with Crocus and Tulip bulbs finally popping out of the ground.  I took a walk around and found the tine tips of Narcissus, Tulips, and Crocus everywhere.  Always an amazing thing after such dark times.

           With the advent of my Wildflower Garden coming into growth I always spend time just sitting in the bleak browns and whites of the end of winter.  Nest to my rock is a plant 99% of people would never have in a garden.  Symplocarpus foetidus   aka.  Skunk Cabbage.   I know, I've heard it all before.  WTF is that doing in your garden.

 
          The first reason is that is is a pretty native foliage plant that does well in wet and shade.  The second reason is that the smell deters deer from entering that area of my garden.  The smell is only bad when there is a huge concentration of plants, I only have 4-5.  The last reason it that it is in fact the first plant to flower in the Spring....   actually in the late Winter.  This plant is in full flower now in February.  It actually produced the flower buds in December and slowly grew until they are now in blossom.  Most consider this a noxious weed to be destroyed, but it is a beautiful manifestation of life.  How many times do we only look at the bad aspects of someone or something without considering the good.  This is the true signal that spring has sprung.