Anticipation

Alabama azalea - Rhododendron alabamense

Florida flame azalea - R. austrinum

Pink azalea - R. canescens

 

Flame azalea - R. flammeum

It was Carly Simon who wrote the lyrics and music to the hit song Anticipation... It rings true today as much as it did in 1971. Like many, I live in anticipation for what is yet to come.  As a child, it was the excitement of an upcoming birthday or the days leading up to Christmas. At this stage of my life, it is the anticipation of what portends with the plants I've added to my landscape.

I pity those who live around me surrounded by neotropical landscape plants and turf - or gravel for some. These are the folks who move here and complain that Florida has no seasons. Without a proximity to nature, I can understand why they might feel this way. The very nonnative plants that are so commonly in use here simply do not change with the seasons. In the tropics, those kinds of adjustments are largely unnecessary. Native plants, even here in west-central Florida where we rarely have a freezing night, make that adjustment. They change with the seasons - and it is those changes that I relish.

I have added 4 species of native azaleas and so far, they are doing very well two years later.  Native azaleas will never win an award for their foliage beauty, but there are few plants that can match them when in bloom. Unlike the oriental species so widely planted in the south, the flowers are wonderfully fragrant and they attract far more attention from pollinators because of that. It is true that their blooms last for only a few weeks in early spring, but I think that this is part of their allure. I wait more than 11 months each year for 2-3 weeks of spectacular blooms. If they lasted much longer, I might take them for granted. This way, I watch the skinny bare stems and the developing flower buds with anticipation and I exult when they finally pop open. I make sure to visit them daily so as to not miss anything.

Perhaps it's the inner child in me that I nurture each year when I purposely build in the joy of anticipation into my landscape. My fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus) is another example. In my former landscape, one of my two trees had reached epic size. In the late spring, I would go out daily to inspect the buds and when they neared bursting forth, I wanted to call all of my friends over to the house to celebrate with me. 

I've never understood why more of us do not build this kind of joy into our landscapes, as creating joy is nearly important to me as building habitat. They are intrinsically tied together in my mind because much of the joy comes from watching the pollinators, birds, and other wildlife that form a moving palette of color to the overall painting my plants create.  

If we use native plants and we give consideration to their bloom and fruiting times as well as when/if they might generate some fall color, our landscapes will be forever changing and there will always be something new to anticipate. that seems to me to be the superior landscape approach.