Afterword

From Color In and Out of the Garden:

“A garden makes room for our human impulse to organize while also offering us a means to comprehend wildness. Gardening is a humble practice, fraught with snails, failure, and loss, that also holds the promise of transcendent moments of exquisite beauty. It helps us to make sense of nature and find our role in ongoing creation.

My garden is a beautiful distraction that taught me how to cultivate a daily practice. Along with joyous highs and days of celebration, these past several years have held plenty of hard, noisy, and broken parts. To do something—anything really—on a daily practice is to court tedium. Sometimes, all I can do is ride out the doldrums and watch for the next lifting wave of wonder and awe. It always, always arrives. My practice is the walk between this day and that.

I guess what I’m saying is: Pay attention to your life, including the uncelebrated, the overlooked, and the weedy parts. Look with heart and compassion, embrace the broken and the beautiful. Then share what you see with others. Our world needs your perspective.

—April 26, 2022, publication day post
(You’ll find all of my daily posts and garden musings here on Instagram.)

So Many Tulips!

Here in the Pacific Northwest, spring has been remarkably (you might even say ridiculously) cold. Bad news for those of us dreaming of balmy weather, but perfect conditions for a lasting show of tulips in the garden. 

My generous fall planting of tulips timed to bloom on the pub date of Color In and Out of the Garden, was (and continues to be) delightful! My resolve to harvest the blooms and share freely has been thrilling. And, as you can see from the header of this email, I still had copious bunches for the house. I put together an annotated pictorial of my favorites varieties over on the website. I found some real keepers!

This floral initiative was a bit of an extravagant purchase (for me) but sharing tulips with friends and family helped me wring even more pleasure out of introducing my new book to the world. And goodness knows how bleak the garden would be otherwise in this slow start to the growing season. 

Looking beyond tulip season, I’m currently booking events for the upcoming months. In addition to local workshops and talks, I’ve just confirmed a hands-on color study workshop at the New York Botanical Garden, and a last minute opportunity to talk (virtually) with Victoria Horticultural Society next Tuesday, the 17th.  To find out if I’ll be in your area, check my events page where I’m posting in-person and virtual events as they are confirmed. And if you’d like me to come your way, please reach out! 

Thank you to everyone who has helped me celebrate this past month or shared your thoughts and reviews online. It means the world to me.

I’m so glad you’re here,

xo
Lorene

Recent writing: “Shades of Wonder,” GROW in The Seattle Times
Dig into color with your garden, and discover a deeper connection

Reading: “Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Find this book, along with a selection of my favorite authors and titles in my a handmade garden Bookshop

Recent conversations: 
Slow Flowers Podcast, (April 20, 2022)
Cultivating Place (April 28, 2022)
Social Creative Conversations (May 11, 2022)