Whose Viewpoint?

I’ve posted too little over the last two years, so with this forced isolation still upon us, I think I’ll try to post a little something most days. Remains to be seen–it always takes longer to write than I think it’s going to…

So for today, it’s about your viewpoint. This is the view from my living room window, where I stand and stare just about any time I’m not doing something else. (Duh! I mean when I’m not actually working on something else.)

See the little white flowers in the bottom of the screen? Sanguinaria canadensis, aka “Bloodroot” (altho’ you know I hate to promote “common names” because there are too many names for the same plant, depending on your location, and very often the same common name applied to more than one plant).  A few weeks ago, when they were just emerging from the soil, I couldn’t see them from my preferred viewpoint, because they were hidden under the foliage of an Asplenium scopularium–Hart’s tongue fern. They could be seen from another vantage point, but not my vantage point. So there’s the thing: who are you planting/designing for, who’s viewpoint gets priority? Is it you, from where you stand staring out the window? or is it passers-by? or the person wandering through the garden?

I decided to dig up the Asplenium and put it into two areas (it was big once removed, so I split it into two) where they could grow as much as they liked, not overshadow anything, and enjoy being the stars of their own shows.

Another example:  at the top of the screen (beginning of the short video) you’ll see a Choisya ‘Goldfingers’, and behind it an Edgeworthia chrysantha, in bloom from January, before the leaves appear. Edgeworthia begins to bloom when it’s still cold and miserable, so it’s great if I can see them from the window and not have to brave the weather to do so. But these two pretty shrubs were cleverly concealed by a Nandina domestica, species variety (so growing pretty big, unlike some of the cute little cultivars like  ‘Firepower’ or ‘Moon Bay’). Thus, my two little shrubs behind, and especially the Edgeworthia which is still quite young, small and not massively blooming, were invisible to me from my preferred viewpoint. So out came the Nandina, got pruned back a little, and replanted over near the street. Now the Nandina is fully visible to anyone walking by, but almost invisible to me because there’s an evergreen in the way. Hmmm, we’ll see how that works out…

Sometimes it’s worth having things a little hidden. This little Erythronium is unintentionally concealed behind a row of boxwood. I chopped away at a nasty rose which gave me access into this little space.

Like the Sanguinaria, it’s a spring ephemeral–it disappears completely once the weather heats up. So in this case I really do have to go out to find it. Worth the effort.