Spiraea japonica 'Little Princess'
1st July 2012
All plants are equally lovely in their own way but we rarely let them have their own way, we encourage them into styles
and forms that they would certainly not manage on their own. As a gardener I have a particular
style in the way I go about things. Not always a good style, but distinctively my own. My choice usually reflects
my endless optimism that the most unlikely plants will burgeon magnificently in an unsuitable location as a special
favour to me.
The consequence is that the garden is filled with moments and ideas that haven't quite made it. Haven't quite made it
yet I would staunchly assert because every incomplete lunatic idea will mature to perfection eventually, even the ones I lose
faith in and remove.
However from time to time I have moments of insecurity when my inner megalomaniac abandons me and I wonder why I can't
just build a garden like other people filled with flowers and formality and concrete gnomes. Spiraea are wonderful
and comforting to the faint heart with their reliable twiggy stems and summery clusters of cheerful flowers. I must have been
feeling really fragile when I bought 'Little Princess' but I look upon it fondly. It is the simple and inevitable
reflection of my eventual senility, the shape of things to come when recklessness finally dies.
It is curiously comforting to recognise the tidy pink drabness that the future holds. In the meantime it is a dire warning
that keeps me young(ish) and reckless. It acts as a warning beacon and that simple service keeps me from beating it to a
pulp with the back of a spade (not very effective but very satisfying).
Buy one yourself. Go on. I dare you!
27th July 2019