The smell of the earth is good

This is another 'what sort of fool am I?' gardening post.

I am the sort of fool who will buy too many bulbs.



Doesn't look like that much, I suppose, but each of those bags holds between 8 and 25 bulbs -- crocus, winter aconite, tulips, snowdrops, Thalia daffodils -- and I have to cut a new bed to plant them.

I am the sort of fool who will doodle up a new bed during the long hot days of summer, while reading bulb catalogues and dreaming of autumn. And then I will buy too many bulbs because that doodled bed would be nice, wouldn't it, and I've always meant to plant some summer snowflakes.

Gah.

I've made a start. I'm hoping to make it to finished by Veterans' Day.

Meanwhile, here's what's blooming now: 'Snow Flurries,' sasanqua camellia. This is one of a family of frost-hardy camellias bred at the U.S. National Arboretum. In mild years, it will bloom pretty much continuously from October to March. It is beautiful beyond my ability to put into words, but also incredibly difficult to photograph well.




Edna St Vincent Millay