A Dewy Morning in the Garden

It’s a sunny spring morning, the air is crisp and the sky is blue. I am reveling in the lovely green setting of my backyard garden and am entranced by the water drops glistening atop the blades of grass. The season of dew watching is upon us!

Dew appears when the days are warm, nights are cool and the air is moist. The earth cools overnight, chilling the air and then - like magic - drops of water appear out of nowhere and settle on whatever is near the ground. These drops of 'dew' do not last long. By late morning the dew evaporates and our momentary watery celebration of spring is over.

John Milton, the English Renaissance poet, shared the delight of a dewy spring morning in these verses:

“Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet,

With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun,

When first on this delightful land he spreads

His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit and flower,

Glistening with dew..."

Spring flowers are lovely when 'glistening with dew' as he describes. The blossoms of pansies, clover, Dianthus, phlox and euphorbia sparkle in the morning sun with the jeweled globes of water perched lightly upon their petals.  One of the best dew catchers is Ladies mantle (Alchemilla mollis). The name ‘Alchemilla’ is Arabic for “little magical one” and refers to the healing properties of the water that collects on its wide, crinkled leaves. Try the variety known as 'Thriller' for a more compact Ladies Mantle.

The idea that dew contains healing powers was echoed in the 1930s by Dr Edward Bach, an English physician who developed the famed Bach flower remedies. He surmised that the dew sitting upon a blossom absorbed the healing energies of that flower. He reasoned that ingesting a small amount of a flower’s sun-drenched dewdrops could rebalance key emotional energy patterns that were behind many people’s illnesses.

Bach firmly believed that the flower essences in the water were a gift from nature. “Once we have been given a jewel of such magnitude,” Bach said, “nothing can deviate us from our path of love and duty to displaying its luster, pure and unadorned to the people of the world” (source: www.bachcentre.com). Who could imagine that dewdrops were nature’s little healing crystal balls, magnifying and absorbing early morning sunlight? This is indeed the ‘magic of dew’.

So when you walk in your garden on a tranquil spring morning, look closely. You may see dewdrops, nature’s ephemeral crystal balls, magnifying the 'orient beams', as John Milton said, on your flowers and herbs. Enjoy your dewy morning in the garden.