Pretty on the Way In

and on the way out...



Even in spring, it isn't all about the blooms. The remains of the ephemeral Winter Aconite in the Shakespeare Garden at Brooklyn Botanic stopped me dead in my tracks yesterday afternoon. It's one thing to be pretty on the way in, all fresh and young and new like the peony in the first picture above, and another thing entirely to be just as compelling after the bloom has faded. I'm not sure that Winter Aconite always fades so gracefully, but just the chance that it might makes me want to plant some and see.



Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), a fading beauty in the Shakespeare Garden, Brooklyn Botanic