By Francesca Filanc, for Let's Talk Plants! November 2023.
Enjoy the Process
Last month the painting posted in this article was brand-new and it found a new home practically immediately.
If we go to a nursery and see a beautiful plant that we want to buy, we might buy it and get immediate gratification, but this doesn't happen most of the time whether one is selling paintings or sowing seeds to reap rewards in vegetables, fruits or flowers.
It is important for us to be patient as gardeners.
Autumn and winter are perfect months to be thinking about patience in our gardens and enjoying the beauty of plants without foliage like fruit trees or wisteria.
My mother, Pat Welsh, told me a story about her childhood on the farm that I have always loved.
Mum and her older brother used to get seed catalogs at Christmas time. They got so excited because their stepfather, Geffery, had given each of them a plot of land to grow their own vegetables in the spring and summer. In the cold snowy evenings in Pennsylvania on their farm they would have fun pouring over the catalogs, deciding what fruits and vegetables they would grow that coming spring.
Five years ago, I took a trip around the world. I was in Japan in the month of March. One of the most exciting parts of my trip was going to Ashikaga Flower Garden outside of Tokyo. I took several trains and then a long walk to the gardens. The wisteria took my breath away, but not in the way you might think. They were not blooming yet, but as a gardener I, and you as well might, love the bones of a well thought out garden. I enjoyed thinking what it must look like and the fragrances that waft though the air when they are in full bloom.
After lunch I walked to a part of the gardens I had not yet seen. To my extreme glee there were tulips in every color of the rainbow in bloom! The beauty took my breath away. Also, there was a young couple seemingly totally in love. I asked them if they would like me to take their photo. While still in ecstasy over this beautiful garden, a very tall man came up behind me.
"Excuse me but I am a photographer for a news station in Tokyo. May I interview you for the newscast tonight?"
He was amazed to see a non-Japanese person in this garden. He thought I was English, and I told him I was American. The man asked me all kinds of questions. I told him I was a gardener and an artist, and that I was traveling around the world and that I loved Japan.
It is rare in life or in our gardens that we get instantaneous gratification. But as gardeners we enjoy the process. One can get a thrill planning what seeds to buy and planting them, looking forward to the plants sprouting and growing into delicious vegetables. We enjoy the bones of a winter garden, the trunk of a tree that is deciduous or marvel at the canopy of a five-hundred-year-old dormant wisteria in Japan. The journey and the process can fill a heart with joy.
I hear a frog croaking as I finish this article...
Happy Gardening!
~ Francesca
Francesca's current painting-in-progress is a large mixed media piece with gold leaf on Belgian linen entitled "Healing".
The mission statement for this new series is "Healing the world through higher consciousness of thought."
