Posted on by Donna

Blooms Letting Go

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“I follow four dictates: face it, accept it, deal with it, then let it go.”  ~Sheng Yen

 

This was the sight when the first rays of soft sunlight hit my frozen garden on October 29th, the date of our first freeze (or first hard frost).  Up until that point my garden was happily churning out blooms.  Roses, asters, fall crocus, coreopsis were all blooming as if they hadn’t a care in the world.  Then their world was stopped overnight as the mercury dipped to a chilling 24 degrees.

And while I knew the freeze would kill all the blooms, I also knew that they would be revealed one last time in all their glory.   The morning sun IMG_4362was like a spotlight showing them off encased in ice just as they had died.  My garden had become a suspended wonderland.  Every leaf and flower was held in its full color and bloom long enough for me to capture it for the last time.  I made sure I snapped as many pictures as possible before the sun melted everything.  For when the sun has its way with icy blooms and leaves, many are left black, brown, faded; nothing left but a sagging mess hanging from branches.

Of course they looked perfect for Halloween.  The once gorgeous red tipped leaves of hydrangea now a mass of black leaves looking spooky in the front garden.

But that first hard frost or freeze is the prettiest.  It allows you to see your garden one last time in its splendor before you have to let it go.  Once I was done taking snapshots, I turned my back and said a sad, soft goodbye as I let my garden go for this season.

IMG_4292I noticed all the buzzing and flitting or insects had ceased as well.  Now the sounds that fill the garden are those of the birds making music again.  Something to rejoice about at least for now until the next layers of cold and snow take the garden deeper into her long slumber.

Recently on the Tiny Buddha blog, I read this about letting go:

 

Letting go brings abundance.

Sometimes letting go is the absolute hardest thing to do. But when we hold on too tight we leave no room for the light to get through. It’s like catching a feather: you have to hold out your hand and allow the feather to fall into your reach.

You can’t catch a feather by frantically flailing and grasping for it. Once you loosen your grip on a perceived outcome, things start to unfold organically. Learning not to force things opens up the possibility for the brilliant and the extraordinary to happen.

 

Isn’t this just fabulous.  It filled my soul with gladness and made me realize that in the letting go, we bring so much more to us than we will ever realize.  So in celebration of the gratitude for all the joys and abundance my garden and life have given me this year, I am linking in with Laura@ShinetheDivine for her wonderful Gratitude Quilt.  You can still join her by the 24th.  It is easy to do.

 

So what is still blooming in November?  Nothing.  But there are many remnants of prior blooms and lovely memories to share.  All the blooms and foliage here are as they were captured the morning after the first freeze at the end of October.

 

Knautia macedonica
Knautia macedonica
aster
aster
coreopsis
coreopsis
borage
borage
Gaura lindheimeri
Gaura lindheimeri
aster
aster

 

 

The November foliage was beautiful especially wearing its frosty coat.  I am joining with Pam@Digging for her Foliage Follow Up on the 16th, and Christina@Creating my own garden of the Hesperides for her Garden Bloggers Foliage Day on the 22nd.

 

irish moss and mushroom
irish moss and mushroom
forsythia
forsythia
spearmint
spearmint
Arundo donax
Arundo donax
hosta
hosta
clover and the grass
clover and the grass
Miscanthus ‘Purpurascens’ Flame Grass.
Miscanthus ‘Purpurascens’ Flame Grass.

 

 

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Itea  in all its ruby glory.

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Hydrangea leaves in their final bloom.

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The fabulous sparkling colors of hardy hibiscus in the fall.

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More gorgeous frosty color from the foliage of Sanguisorba officinalis.

 

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Viburnum dentatum ‘Blue Muffin’ still showing off.

 

IMG_4272Icy Baptisia glowing in  the morning sun.

 

“In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”  ~Buddhist saying

 

 

Seasonal Celebrations is coming December 1st.  I hope you will join in as we celebrate the changing of the season.  The Winter Solstice will be upon us here in the North and the Summer Solstice in the South.  Details below!

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Come Join Us:

Seasonal Celebrations is a time for marking the change of seasons and what is happening in your part of the world during this time.  I hope you will join in by creating a post telling us how you celebrate this time of year whether winter or summer or something else.  Share your traditions, holidays, gardens and celebrations in pictures, poetry or words starting December 1st.  I will post a bit early though around November 29th or 30th.

And it seems so appropriate to collaborate with Beth and her Lessons Learned meme.  What lessons have you learned this past season of fall here in the North and spring in the South.  Then tell us about your wishes, desires and dreams for this new season.The rules are simple.  Just create a post that talks about lessons learned and/or seasonal celebrations.  If you are joining in for both memes please leave a comment on both our blog posts.  Or if you are choosing to join only one meme, leave a comment on that blog post.  Make sure to include a link with your comment.

Beth and I will do a summary post of our respective memes on the solstice (the 20th of December).  And we will keep those posts linked on a page on our blog.  Your post should be linked in the weekend before the equinox to give us enough time to include your post in our summary.  And if you link in a bit late, never fear we will include it on the special blog page (which I still have to create).  The badges here can be used in your post.   So won’t you join in the celebration!!

 

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Next up on the blog:  Monday I will be reviewing another great Garden Book about native plants.

I wrote a guest post over at Vision and Verb.  I hope you will visit this wonderful website of women writers.

I hope you will join me for my posts once a month at Beautiful Wildlife Garden. See my next post on the 12th.

sharetheloveI am also joining in I Heart Macro with Laura@Shine The Divine that happens every Saturday.

As always, I’ll be joining Tootsie Time’s Fertilizer Friday.

Please remember, to comment click on the title of the post and the page will reload with the comments section.

All original content is copyrighted and the sole property of Donna Donabella @ Gardens Eye View, 2010-2013.  Any reprints or use of content or photos is by permission only.

66 Replies to “Blooms Letting Go”

  1. Donna, I can’t tell you how much this post means to me, on several levels. (I spent quite a bit of time on the Tiny Buddha site too…) having never lived anywhere that had a hard frost, this last exquisite beauty of the flowers was new to me.

  3. That quote from Tiny Buddha really strikes a chord with me. It is how I try to live my life. The frost makes for beautiful photos, and you managed to get the perfect light. That hardy hibiscus truly glows.

    1. Wonderful to hear you also were touched by the Tiny Buddha words. Patty, when I saw the hardy hibiscus glowing that morning, I thought “it’s blooms are glorious and now look at the foliage”–stunning plant!!

  4. I must admit, Donna, your beautiful images of frosty blooms triggered a smile of sweet remembrance… I love when the seasons collide and magic happens. Our Fall is much different than in years past. First snow in October melted in hours, several hard frosts, but most of our day time temps have been well above 60. Very strange for us. Makes you want to go outside and enjoy the gardens… except there isn’t much left. Picked our last tomatoes a few days ago and enjoyed fresh garden salsa for the last time this year. Frost finally finished them yesterday. My plants are beginning to wonder if it’s Spring.

    1. Here too Carolyn as the crazy weather is confusing the plants and bulbs. And tomatoes. That is a different fall. No snow yet but plenty of cold weather except this weekend with temps in the 60s. I got lots of work done finally.

    1. Thank you Frances. It was an incredible fall without any real frost except a light one in late September…so the garden just kept going. I will certainly keep as warm as we can with the cold weather we have had. We did have a surprise warm up this weekend but that will be gone this week as we get to more seasonable temps of 30s and 40s.

    1. Thank you so much Sandra….I love to write about my life and the lessons I am learning in my garden. I have been working on letting go and this freeze showed me the beauty one can find in doing so.

  8. I agree that the first frost is beautiful, but the timing this year was such that you really only saw that on the foliage, the flowers were already past. I can honestly say that the passing of the autumn flowers does not depress me, since I know we are now getting closer to seeing the spring flowers that I miss and love.

    1. Great way to look at it Jason….warm breezes, the smell of new grass growing and hyacinths…can’t wait. We were lucky this year to have both blooms and foliage in icy suspension.

  9. Those photos are beautiful Donna! A hard frost is something I long for every autumn, just so that I CAN let go. Your words and those you quote really spoke to me. Thanks Donna!

  10. These images are so pretty with their blooms frozen in time. I’ll have to remember to look for that when we get a frost.

    We do most of our letting go in the summer heat which is not pretty.

    1. Oh I did not even think about your summer but yes that has to be brutal….hope you might get to see your own sparkling flowers Shirley.

  12. Such a poignant post Donna, I felt honoured to be able to share your last joy of the blooms for this season. The foliage is stunning, almost worth losing the blooms to be able to see the frost edged petals and leaves. Lucky you were able to see the last beauty as usually to leave for work when it’s still dark don’t you?

    1. Christina I do leave for work in the dark but I was not working that day and therein lies the luck to be home to see this. It was my honor to share these last blooms with you!!

    1. Agreed Brenda…time for rest. I finally got the rest of my chores done (or what i could get done)…felt great to finally close it up!

  15. Some of the best frosty images I’ve seen – a lovely read too Donna. Our gardens will soon be in slumber – it’s nice to appreciate them one last time. Happy Bloom Day!

  17. Aww, it must be hard to say goodbye to those beautiful flowers. I love the concept of “letting go” to bring more abundance in our lives. Wonderful post, Donna. I like all the “frosty” pictures. 🙂

  18. That’s the way I try to live too, but if you try to hang on to your garden, you’re especially doomed to fail! Wonderful post, love the frosty photos. I wonder who took a bite out of the mushroom?

  21. The photos of your blooms with sparkling ice crystals on them are just beautiful. It is sad to say goodbye to all the colorful and abundant blooms, but we can now let our eyes rest, in anticipation of noticing spring’s small blooms.

  23. Oh, your frosty flowers and foliage are quite beautiful. Thanks for getting out there to take pictures to share, before they blackened. We’ve only had one light frost so far, but there is hardly anything left in my garden blooming anyway.

    1. I hope you are feeling better Alison…it was a wonderful morning…very cold but I didn’t care. I felt like a child seeing this for the first time.

  24. The frosty blooms are so pretty, I like the Borage, like blue stars. The Sanguisorba really looks pretty with the scalloped edges.

    1. It was like another world in my garden that morning Hannah. The borage did look like frosty stars and I also loved the Sanguisorba.

  27. Your frost covered blooms and foliage were so pretty!The last gift of autumn, but now winter comes in with all it has to offer. I totally agree with your wise words about letting go. If we cling too tightly, our hands won’t be open to receive the next gift!

    1. Lovely Deborah…the next gift is winter and I am in a place where I can accept it now (well most days as long as I don’t have to drive in the really bad weather) 🙂

  28. Hi Donna, i’ve always loved the frost photos agains the light like laces at the edges of leaves and petals, how so very beautiful. But i always feel a little sad when they already succumb to frost and snow!

  33. We do have many similar thoughts most times. I too wrote on letting go in October, but it was on letting go of abundance. I suppose the quote above was meant in letting go of a relationship, and as one who has caught a feather in a photograph, I can see how letting go of encumbrances would be abundance of feeling. Let the “new” of life unfold around oneself and not burden one down to past mistakes.

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