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A visiting friend was astonished with the variety of plants I’ve left standing for winter and was inspired with their beauty. A winter palette of ghostly whites, silver grays, faded golds .deep browns and umbers may not be everyone’s idea of a pretty garden, yet winter’s beauty lies in more subtle charms of stillness and deep observation, with the revelation of the unexpected.
When else can one see so clearly the magnificent, architectural feats of bird’s nests, the fractal patterns in seedheads, the plants which birds relish for winter’s food?
Since discovering that finches love the seeds of orange tithonia, or Mexican Sunflower, I don’t remove them until spring. The tall, multi -branched forms with hanging upside down seedheads teem with bobbing gold and red finches and twittering sparrows while scavenging juncos feed on the ground beneath, gleaning the scattered seed.
This year I watched in surprise as these birds and others swarmed the stands of anise hyssop, black peppermint and mountain mint- surprising as no wildlife or plant guide has ever noted these as bird seed sources.
Sunflowers, asters, echinacea, the dreaded ragweed, many natives and berries are more commonly acknowledged. I realized that the birds must be medicating themselves with the high thymol content of these mints, perhaps to ward off respiratory ills.
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