As I reflect on the different flowers we observed on the two trips, it’s obvious that one fundamental difference in these two experiences is that Holehird Gardens in Cumbria is a carefully designed garden, bringing together hundreds of non-native plants from across the world. In contrast, our days in Texas focused on wild flowers native to the Gulf Coast and the Chihuahua Desert–though we saw frequent evidence of plant displays in the state and federal parks and many miles of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush planted along Texas highways. But while walking along the trails in Texas–photographing gaillardia, baptisia, lupines, asters, daisies, columbines, sunflowers, etc--I was struck by how many of these flowers also can be found in the Alum Garden. In many respects gardening at Coe enables us to enjoy the best of both worlds, a wonderful “middle landscape" between northern England and southern Texas.
Perhaps because English gardeners spend so much of their lives dealing with chilly, wet, overcast days, they have a long tradition of including in their gardens an area for flowers typically found in much hotter and drier parts of the world. Holehird Gardens, for example, has two conservatories set aside for plants that like a desert or alpine landscape. I recall my first visit to the Chelsea Physic Garden in London and encountering a prominently displayed common cocklebur, a perennial weed found across the Great Plains that I had previously assumed had no redeeming qualities.
The slide show accompanying this essay includes a small sample of Texas photos taken with my little digital camera. All the shots are quite pedestrian and ordinary, but perhaps they can still suggest the richness of our experience in these parks. My favorite photo comes at the end: the yellow columbine photographed at the end of our final day in Big Bend. Earlier that afternoon, we visited a Ranger station, and one of the volunteers suggested we return to the Homer Wilson ranch–which we had explored two days before–and locate the site where the Sears and Roebuck ranch house had once stood. She also encouraged us to follow the trail to Cattail Falls, where we would find a beautiful waterfall (not marked on any park maps) and perhaps even see a rare yellow columbine.
Leaving the Ranger station, we decided to follow her advice. Although the road was barricaded, we did find the site of the now deserted home site. We also saw a park trail sign, indicating the falls was at the end of a one-mile trail. Although it was getting late, we thought we could do the hike and get back to our van before sunset. So we took off.
After walking for 25 minutes, we entered the canyon leading to the falls, but we soon encountered a series of large boulders blocking our ascent to the pool below the falls. As we discussed how to proceed, I saw along the edge of several small pools of water many clumps of ferns and columbines (not yet in bloom), and I thought there was a chance that the columbine directly below the falls might be in bloom. Climbing over the boulders, hoping that I didn’t slip and break a leg, I managed to reach the foot of the falls. And immediately in front of me were the largest, most beautiful columbine flowers I had ever seen. Since it was already nearing dusk, I had only a few seconds to take a few photographs and offer a short prayer of thanks for this special gift. The last photograph in the slide show is a reminder of one of those times when you think to yourself, life can never get better than right here, right now. ~Bob