It Is Easy to Overlook Quiet Friends

I spend so much time thinking and working on my long border garden that I frequently overlook my true blue stand of white birches. They take minimal care- occasionally whacking out the suckers at their base. They always look good, but no flashy colors or display of lavish foliage. They just offer up their luminous white trunks every year and every season.

They are the state tree in NH so they are easy to dismiss as an obvious choice for our yards and somehow unworthy of a serious gardener's attention. I also happen to have them springing up all over the place. But these facts don't mitigate that this particular clump of trees is really quite elegant. They lack the height and girth of a long established clump, but I am hoping this means I will have them a good while longer. They don't freeze solid like many trees so are very susceptible to the weight of wet snow and ice. The bigger and taller they are, the more likely they will to be felled by the late spring snows.

As I sat on my bench this evening these birches whispered my name while the border garden was hooting and hollering. I turned my full attention to them this evening and gave them a little "hello, friend" back.