Capturing the Glow

When I arrive home after work every day, I park my car as close to the garage as possible. As I walk back toward the house, I am often struck by the way this corner of the front garden looks in the slanting rays of late afternoon sun. It tempts me with jewel-like colors, inviting me to rush into the house and run back outside with the camera...

But my efforts to take a picture that does this corner justice have all proved futile. Maybe these plants just don't want to look too pretty. Maybe they all know that they were placed here for their toughness so they're afraid to ruin their image. Whatever the reason, it frustrates me.

In the best of these insufficient pictures, you get a mere hint of the rich ruby embers provided by the 'Purple Knockout' salvia lyrata, a taste of the hearty amber glow of the carex buchanii, and a suggestion of the smooth silvery backdrop of sea kale leaves.

What I really want to know is this: Is my camera failing me... or do my eyes see this bed through "gardener's glasses"--similar to rose-colored glasses, but showing the whole garden in a full, lush state of what it was intended to be?