Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So goes the tale of Beauty and the Beast. For some of us a snowfall softly covering the world around in a quiet white blanket is a wonderful sight. This is the image that greeted us on all too many a day from the back windows of our house this past season. When one looks at the beauty-beast all too often it is possible that the veil is finally lifted from one's eyes and the real beast shows its fangs. For others, the beauty never fades.
Where I live Sumac is a invasive weed. In Tasmania, the dearth of fall color with native trees makes this a desirable addition for the garden as Gay will tell you. I do admit it does add to our local fall color and at that time is almost tolerable, well, actually quite nice. Sumac has some useful properties for a very select few in addition to its fall color. When our daughter Ann would visit in the fall, she made Sumac Elderberry jelly from gatherings in a nearby field.. It must be an acquired taste, like Gammel Dansk or to be brought up on it like Marmite. I, for one, avoid all three like the plague. I also keep away from the Sumac in swampy areas having caught some Poison Sumac in my youth.
It was an article of Gay's that inspired this response. She included a photograph of a large array of blue painted stakes taken from a magazine on, of all things, horticulture. To some people, I assume, it was something to admire. As a substitute for a living garden it left both her and me very, very cold. But then again, as a lark, I tasked my Web Editor's Thesaurus for horticulture. The result was; "hors d'oeuvre, horse, horse and carriage, horse and cart, horse-drawn-carriage, horse around". Well, I guess it takes all kinds.
I have two Walking Iris Neomarica northiana plants that bloomed indoors early this spring. (Outdoors the ground is still covered with snow in early April.) I thought them quite exotic until I found out they are considered weeds in the southeast. I still like them. This beholder sees the beauty. Nothing was blooming outdoors and very few plants are in flower indoors this long, long winter. I
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