Coast Silk-Tassel

The only ice I welcome is silk-tasseled

icicles falling,
a shrubby catkin chandelier,
spike-inflorescence waterfall
of pollen-laden drips.

Watch me sneeze
and persist
jostling,
releasing more fine grains
to the winds.

No ice in the garden,
a frost-light winter,
an ice-heavy,
ice-weary
country.

No ice in the garden,
only Garrya elliptica,
the coast silk-tassel,
wavy-leaved green screen,
grown uprightly tall now
from a one gallon pot,
dangling first blooms
from lowest, oldest branches.

I push aside toad lily stalks,
dry and hollow,
reach for an octopus-armed limb
and lift
in awe of the silvered box-braids,
the laced detail,
the primrose-yellow, speckled chain.

No rose this flower,
no petals to pet,
no radial symmetry,
nor fragrance to breathe in.

So many ways to be
a flower,
a body,
an agent of
life
hope
care
support
change.

No ice in the garden,
only icicle-mimicking silk tassel
and rest,
only camouflage
of last years leaves
blanketing ground
supporting
evergreen uprising
of Garrya
of all of us,
together.

Silk-tassel flowers appear in winter, with male and female flowers on separate plants. The fruits that follow on female plants feed songbirds.

It’s native to the Oregon coast from Lincoln county south to Santa Barbara county California.

Plant coast silk-tassel in sun to part shade to add evergreen structure or screening to your garden.

It grows 8′ – 12′ or more. This one is barely 3 years old from a 1 gallon pot. The flowers are hiding on the lower, older limbs, but next year will be spectacular on all that upright growth.