First year.....sleep.

     There is an expression in perennial gardening, "First year sleep, second year creep, third year leap." Someone, somewhere, contrived this saying to give the gardener realistic expectations, and perhaps to give the impatient gardener patience.  Reduced to simplest terms, "Don't expect great things until the third  year.  So many times this has proven to be true.  My garden offers Knautia as an example.

First year knautia (snoooooze)

Second year knautia (not in blossom, but creeping to a real clump of foliage)

 

Third year knautia - Leap Year!  The foliage is in the foreground; the wine red blossoms  suspended way above the greenery are difficult to see  in this picture.  I like to pair it with Penstemon Husker Red (behind it) because they just go so well together.  Its size is lush and perfect.  And I wish it had stopped here!  Scroll down....

Is there a rhyming word for what happens the fourth year?  Sleep, creep, leap................I'm at a loss.   Officially taller than I am, it has become unruly, out of proportion, towering over everything else, even the spruce tree.  While I am grateful to have healthy soil, I'm not sure I have the space or imagination to divide and re-locate this basket-ball player of the garden.  This, my fourth Autumn here, will be a big season for division.