The Late Bloomers

 “Creating is living doubly. The groping, anxious quest of a Proust, his meticulous collecting of flowers, of wallpapers, and of anxieties, signifies nothing else.”

                                                                                    Albert Camus

Life or more often the daily trudgery of work,  can feel like Sisyphus' eternal punishment. The moral is supposed to teach us to never give in to the disapointments we are dealt in life, and to always keep trying no matter how unfulfilling or achievable the task at hand. If you fail, try and try again. It's an old adage in the gardening world especially for those that grow alpines or difficult and choice bulbs from different climates,  that you have likely killed far more flowers than you have grown successfully. 

Picked up this lovely Hesperantha coccinea at the famed Italio Gardens of Baldasarre Mineo in Southern Oregon this past spring. Here we are in Mid November and while it has been mild, it's pumping out flowers non stop now. 

The eternal struggle is supposed to be what keeps us moving forward, the quest for perfection or  the never ending boulder rolling. But you really have to wonder what if Sisyphus had found a hammer and smashed the boulder into a million pieces and carried them up one at time so they couldn't roll down the hill and maybe he would have found the end of his quest some day. Or maybe he is still down there in Hades rolling that ball like so much of humanity chained to a never ending struggle. In these days of massive income inequality where someone like Elon Musk hails his followers as if he is a roman emperor presiding over a colosseum full of twitter followers to ask if he should sell some stock to pay taxes and contribute his share. The struggle for him is whether or not to do the right thing. The struggle for some is to find the next meal, or a dry place to sleep at night or the next drug fix. 

 

Oxalis hirta still blooming in the greenhouse in Mid November.

Oxalis hirta 'Gotenburg'
these are younger bulbs gifted to me by the wonderful Columbia-Willamette NARGS 
Chapter member Terry Laskiewicz. A lighter pink than the straight species and somewhat more rounded petals.

The struggle for others is to find that flower they have been lusting over for years, or that rare book or stamp they have been seeking. The Camus quote is one to ponder, those who create, like artists or actors for the entertainment of others. Or those inspired to do more at work then roll a boulder up a hill until the social security check finally comes in and they can sink into an easy chair and reflect on the absurdity of a life spent in toil for some pieces of paper that signify you don't owe someone something any longer. Maybe there is more to life than the toil of a work a day existence in front a computer creating widgets or shuffling papers. Or maybe Camus was right and the whole thing is really meaningless. 

I can tell you one thing Camus was right about, the collecting of Anxieties is meaningless, whether or not there is a point to life is another thing, but staying up at night worrying about the boulder you know is going to be there at the bottom of the hill every morning when you clock in is pointless. Hard to not do but pointless all the same. 

2.8 inches of rain in the last 48 hours as a soaker of an atmospheric river blew in from the remnants of some typhoon that exhuasted itself out over the vast pacific and decided to ride the jet stream inland. Mild, almost tropical temperatures as shown from the South africans blooming in the garden and greenhouse. 

Cheers,

Mark