Here in New England, spring comes in with a roar. Everything
seems to bloom at once, in the space of a week or two: the daffodils, the
tulips, the forsythia, the cherry trees, the magnolias.
Then there are the quieter flowers, buried in the grass.
Crocus are done by now, of course. Dandelions are back, blooming as brightly as
they do in July. I saw my first violet about two weeks ago. Catmint is blooming
from cracks in the sidewalk only a few blocks away.
And just yesterday evening, I spotted one of my favorites:
the carpet
bugle.
Don’t you just love that name?
Carpet bugle is a half-weed half-garden plant. It’s springy
and green, and bounces when you tread on it like – well, like a thick carpet. It
raises little green flowering heads, studded with little purple flowers. It
spreads like mad and creates its own landscaping, and its combination of dull
green and soft purple is very nice.
Its Latin name, Ajuga,
is uninformative, but its English name is perfect. It spreads like a
carpet, and the flowers are little violet bugles.
It requires no care: it simply grows. Our courtyard is full
of it, and violets.
And now we’re ready for summer.
