Seeing too much peak and not enough normalcy

It’s the time of year when my rose plants are pumped with growth hormones. They’re shooting out new leaves, and every stem has buds ready to pop open. Search for “rose” and you get images showing this time of year, with fresh glossy foliage and newly opened flowers: The new buds look like teenagers to me, full of energy and growth. As with humans, what’s new and tender is vulnerable: many of my rose buds are covered in aphids sucking nourishment from them. This is also a rose plant, one that I transplanted from a bad location. It think it’ll survive, but I’m not expecting flowers this year. Spring is an exciting time in the garden, when so many things reach their pinnacle. But the brightness and tenderness of the flowers feels almost over the top to me, because so much of the year is not this. Most of the year, plants are focusing on photosynthesizing, fruiting, and storing energy rather than putting everything toward new growth. As a gardener, most of what I see is not the peak.…