In flower language
Geranium means folly.
Probably some outrage in
Restoration drama, a fluke,
Cad, a missing comma
In a perfumed letter --
A rebuke then, better left
To the past than any future
Time might emit and call
Us here, where it seems so clear.
Geranium means sprouts
Where other cuttings wither,
Stems jammed back in earth
Issue threads, thrive, neither
Conquered nor dead but
Quite the reverse --if this is
Folly, we could do worse.
Geo, I have disliked geraniums since childhood. My dad overwintered his in the east bay window. My job was to deadhead old leaves and water the plants. I learned about age five that if I brushed the leaves the smell released was awful. Horrid. Yet, I persevered, just like geraniums.
ReplyDeleteDear Joanne, I thoroughly understand. At different stages, geraniums can emit some alarming smells. I've always had a fondness for the acidic odor of fresh clippings though. And, in my years gardening in public places, appreciated their resilience under damaging foot-traffic. Norma loves them now, in our retirement, but I insist she keep them in the great outdoors.
DeleteI have the completely opposite feeling about geraniums to Joanne - my mother always took hers in for the winter, cut them back and then we all enjoyed the bright spots of colour during the cold months. I would do the same except our cats like to eat anything green (even artificial plants!) so I over-winter ours in the garage with no watering and next to no light. "If this is folly, we could do worse" - indeed.
ReplyDeleteThey are indeed resilient and durable, Jenny. So are cats. A geranium-cat hybrid would be just about indestructible.
DeleteGeraniums were my father's favorite flower. I never cared for the smell but he loved them so.
ReplyDeleteStrangely, you've hit accurately on my wife's opinion of me, Emma. Maybe that's why I'm sympathetic to geraniums.
DeleteThat's twice in one week that you have made me LOL, Geo.!
DeleteI didn't know that's what it means. Wow. It's a gorgeous one.
ReplyDeleteDear Lux, as a gardener I've found geraniums to be wonderful, various, eager to live --a great flower. Why it came to mean "folly" in Victorian flower language escapes me.
DeleteThanks for enlightening me. Methinks my garden is full of folly. They are such pretty flowers, though, in different colors, and I love a flower that can survive weather changes.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, I cannot separate my appreciation of a resilient flower from my appreciation of you.
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