Perennial

My aunt is teaching me that when you’re planting a garden with perennials, the key is to know when to cut them back to encourage growth for the next year.

There are specific points where you cut them – with knockoff roses, for example, there are bulbs that you cut in front of, to entice the new cherry brown leaf growth to pull in the bright carnation-red flowers. Those roses came with the home. They sit in the backyard, watching the estuary and the cattails. The tide coming in and out, in and out. You and I both agreed on our first date that roses are incredibly overrated…