Jul 12 2010
These Summer Days
Nothing symbolizes these summer days in Vermont better than day lilies. They are big, bright, cheery flowers, no less beautiful for being commonplace. They grow all over the place this time of year: in front of humble homes like mine, along roads and lanes, in uncut fields with daisies, black-eyed Susans and other wildflowers, and in carefully cultivated gardens. This morning, while walking a logging road, I even saw a patch of them in a clearing deep in the woods. Yeah, this time of year, they seem to be everywhere.
Wild or domestic, good soil or poor, they are herbal phalanxes that shout vitality. They are equal to any insult or injury, as anyone who has dug up their complex network of roots and rhizomes will attest. So bring on the heat waves, bugs, droughts, torrential downpours, or anything else that summer can throw at them. They are ready. They are strong.
But day lilies do not last forever. While this tight knot of plants may bloom a month or more, each individual flower lasts only a day. Hence the name. The bud opens in early morning, shouts floral joy into world all day long, then withers at dusk. Surely some of them must bloom two days or longer, but I haven’t seen it. I don’t despair, though. There are still plenty more buds to open. There are still plenty more days.
Yeah, day lilies are physical manifestations of the summer season that launch themselves into the world around the Summer Solstice, and then gradually fade with the gradual shortening of daylight. Like summer heat, they seem relentless, overbearing, unending. . . but their days pass much sooner than we expect. So if you’ll excuse me, I’ll sign off now. The day lilies are marking time, and there is still so much I want to do this summer.
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