When autumn met summer (and it was love at first sight).

Silence Dogood here. I was just driving through the little townlet of Maxatawny en route to my bank, admiring roadsides lushly covered with the white and lavender asters, goldenrod, and white-flowered nettles that proclaim the arrival of fall.

But once on the main (and as far as I can tell, only) street through Maxatawny,  I came upon an amazing plant combination that I would never, ever have expected. Someone had planted a small-flowered white aster that, unlike its wild cousins, had great clouds of white bloom, behind a standard red-flowered zonal geranium (pelargonium).

To see those brilliant red summer flowers blazing in front of the white cloud of autumn blooms was heart-stopping. Intentional, or an accident? Whatever the case, the result was inspired. It made my breath catch, even as I was driving along focusing on making a desperately needed bank deposit, and that’s saying something.

If I weren’t such a Luddite, I’d have stopped and clicked a picture. As it is, you’ll have to make that picture for yourselves. Red stars suspended in front of a white cloud, transforming a plant many of us take for granted (the zonal geranium) into a plant with unparalleled pizazz. Far from fading out as autumn took its turn, in this case summer was teaching us that sometimes, the best really is yet to come.

        ‘Til next time,

                       Silence

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