Jean Zimmerman

Tag: flowers

  • Outside of NYC

    you wouldn’t guess we have native plants waterfalls towering old trees (this one a kentucky coffee tree) wildflowers magical floating spheres amid reeds more wildflowers But we do. When you come to New York, go to Times Square or the Statue of Liberty, by all means, but visit the Botanical Garden in the Bronx if…

  • I’m tired of flowers

    They’re too pretty. They distract you from all the miseries around you, inside you. They are beautiful effortlessly, which puts everybody to shame. One of my favorite poems, Walking Around by Pablo Neruda, opens with these lines: It so happens I am sick of being a man. And it happens that I walk into tailorshops…

  • How old were you

    when you first noticed flowering trees? Think about it. I had an apple tree in my back yard when I was a kid and I sure never noticed its blossoms. Later, living in my 20s on Manhattan’s upper west side, where the medians were a jungle of pear trees, I remember having the certain knowledge…

  • Take one step

    in the desert and you see something astounding. I am parched. I crave liquid, anything, water, iced coffee, beer. Desert plants thrive in the heat of the sun. Without water, they ooze color. Yellow desert marigold, a member of the aster family. The flame of indian paintbrush. Or these more delicate desert mallow. Textures seem…

  • Gloriousness

    It’s kind of murky on this St. Patrick’s Day in the Hudson Valley of New York. Let’s get a little color with a bougainvillea gone haywire: And a little inspiration from Seneca: The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.