Gertrude Jekyll:
(London, 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932).
British garden designer and writer. She designed more than 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. She also wrote more than 1,000 articles for magazines such as Country Life and The Garden.
What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.
Wild flowers of Scotland. Meaning 🌿 :
The quote describes “June” as:
– ☀️ ’the perfect young summer’
– 🌱 ’the fulfillment of the promise of the preceding spring months’
– 🌸 a moment of ‘fresh, youthful beauty’
– 🍃 a phase in which nature shows ‘not a single sign of decay’ yet.
🎭 Deeper implication:
There is also a subtle thought of ’transience’ in it:
– June is at its most beautiful,
– precisely because ‘nothing of wilting or old age is visible yet’,
– while the reader simultaneously realizes that that beauty is ‘not lasting’.
📚 Origin:
The quote comes from:
– “Wood and Garden: Notes and Thoughts, Practical and Critical, of a Working Amateur.”
– 📅 originally published in 1899
– 📖 page 77
– 🏡 in the context of Gertrude Jekyll’s reflections on her garden in “Munstead Wood, Surrey”.
👩🌾 Author: Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932)
– 🇬🇧 English ‘garden designer’
– ✍️ author of influential books on ‘gardens, plants, and seasons’
– 🌺 known for her combination of ‘practical gardening experience’ and ‘poetic description of nature’.
This quote fits her style very well, as she often wrote about:
– experiencing the seasons
– bloom and beauty
– the tension between ‘fullness’ and ’transience’.
There is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the yet distant, but surely coming summer.
