Garden Glories

“Look at the fish!” I exclaimed as we stood on the little bridge at Cann Gardens this morning. The lily pads were thick, and the swirl of black, orange, and black/orange Koi were in bright contrast to the dark water and green pads. I’d never seen so many before! Maybe it was feeding time, I surmised as some came to the top of the water with mouths open hungrily.

The gardens were incredible this morning. The air was still cool on the wide, brick terraces of the historic house shaded by ancient trees. Overhanging branches framed an Eden-like panorama that unfolded before us, as winding cobbled paths led past pots dripping red begonias, sun-dials in the middle of colorful plantings, and arbors laden with morning glorys.

The only hard part was deciding which way to go. It really didn’t matter, though, because to the right we would pass a weathered old gazebo, followed by a mass planting of brilliant purple petunias, foot-long golden trumpet blossoms hanging from their stalks, and flowering vines that in their autumn lushness spilled onto the walkway. Overhead, clumps of curious green seed balls supported by the fern-like lace of cypress leaves look like hand-painted ornaments on the deciduous conifer.

A fluffy-tailed squirrel crouched under an oak munching an acorn held in his forepaws. The ground was covered in quarter-size acorn caps and the fat green-brown nuts. I noticed a splash of color on the ground and picked up a tri-colored leaf, divided into a broad base of orange, a band of green, and a tip of golden brown. Two more, slightly different but just as colorful, lay nearby. Then I saw a purple-black one. Together they make a seasonal accent on my dining room table this afternoon.

A newer gazebo invited us to sit before we made the circle curving slightly up hill to the rest of the gardens. “We must bring a picnic down here tomorrow,” Howard insisted. “Make those chicken drumsticks we have in the freezer,” I was instructed. He was under the weather with no appetite yesterday, but these surroundings were stirring his senses.

The morning sun gleamed on the shining path before us, making the brick cobblestones white and transparent looking in the golden light. “Look! Streets of Gold like in Heaven!” I couldn’t help exclaiming. And they led into another paradise of autumnal beauty, heralded by a stand of flame-red, brush-like spikes, gorgeous zinnias in their deep tones of orange, red and fuchsia, and masses of yellow--daisy-like sunflowers, coneflowers, and black-eyed Susans. Hovering nearby were clumps of purple fountain grass, reminiscent of the fluffy sail on the squirrel’s back, and the lowly brown of the fuzzy cattail. We are definitely going back tomorrow!