If You Wait Long Enough

Years ago I planted a clematis in what turned out to be the wrong spot. It has struggled, never seeming to become anything more than a tiny, frail stem barely emerging from the thick tangle of lady’s mantle, buttercup and other weeds that have inevitably thrived around it.

By last spring I had pretty much given up on it. But when we returned home this year after being away for most of the summer, we found a single, large flower – its first ever, and one of the loveliest clematis blooms I have ever seen.