Appreciating Short Lived Seasons

When we built the addition on our house twenty years ago I was childless and had more time for gardening. One feature we built in was a tiny secret courtyard garden with a pierced brick wall. In that garden I planted Clematis that I trained to grow up the wall to soften the look of the brick.
I loved the year round green foliage when I chose it not knowing about the beautiful white blossoms that came with the spring. The first spring the plant bore a cascade of small white flowers with the most glorious aroma, but the plant was still small and the blossoms were few. Over the years the vine grew wide and tall reaching the roof of the second floor.

When spring came the flowers were so many that the gardenia like perfume from them almost seeped through the windows. That smell made me happy, over powering any real sadness that might be going on in the world.

About ten years after we built the addition we decided to paint our raw red brick house a taupe color. I hired a man who I wish I had liked more since painting fifty year old brick turned out to be a bigger job than either of us anticipated because it socked up paint like a Labrador who has been out playing in the yard on a summer day slurps up cold water from a bowl.

When the painter got around to the secret courtyard he announced that the Clematis vine had to be cut down so he could paint the pieced brick wall. Heavens no I thought, ten years of beautiful growth must not be destroyed.

So I told him I would build scaffolding that the vine could be draped on, away from the wall, but under no circumstances was the vine to be cut. He was wary that this would work, but I was determined. I did have to do some trimming, but with enough ladders and two by fours I was able to move the climbing vine away from the wall.

After the five coats of paint were out on the wall and allowed to dry I tried to place the plant back. It was in no way perfect. Some of it had not made the transition well, but the roots and major stalk of the vine lived and eventually flourished.

Today I went out back to sit on the patio and just suck in the air from the best smelling flower I have ever grown. The work of building the scaffolding was long forgotten and the joy that the vine brings me the few days of the year it is blooming is worth whatever it took to keep it. This plant reminds me that many things are worth working to save.