Blooming on a Rainy Day

These pretty blooms belong to the pride and joy in my garden... My Bella Daylilies. When I bought them a few years back, they were Bela Lugosi Daylilies, but over the years cross-pollination and less-than-ideal soil conditions changed their coloration away from the typical Bela Lugosi Daylilies (which have dark purple petals with a milky lime-green throat), to the colors they are now. So now, I just call them my Bellas... But they're still my absolute favorite ladies in the garden.They're amazing flowers... Each plant produces half a dozen to a dozen blooms, and my clump has about 8 plants in it. When those blooms open, their scent is so strong that if I were to leave the window open, their fragrance would drift through the whole house. They're so exotic and eye-catching, that I get compliments about them every year. I've been asked to divide my clump and swap some of my girls for other Daylilies... A tempting proposition since I love Daylilies, but I just can't part with my girls.The thing about my Bellas... Each flower blooms only once. In the morning, the flower will open and reveal the amazing scent and colors that brighten the whole front yard, and by the next morning, the sweet bloom's petals will lose color and turn almost clear, then drop to the ground. The whole blooming season for my Bellas is only a couple of weeks in late July-early August, so the show that my girls put on is relatively short lived, especially for Daylilies. Then, the grassy foliage turns an emerald green before going down for the winter. The first plants to succumb to frost, the last ones to wake up in the spring. It's a rather short life for my girls each year.I used to think that it was such a shame when my Bellas would decide to bloom on a cloudy, rainy day. Those stunning flowers seem wasted when the sun doesn't highlight them and when the wind is so wet it doesn't carry their scent around the yard. Their short life in bloom totally wasted on a dark, damp, cool day, where their beauty can't truly be appreciated. Since this summer has been incredibly dark, dreary, and rainy, there have been quite a few days where they have opened their sweet faces and not seen a ray of sun.Then yesterday, as I was walking back from the garage after saying goodbye to Mr. Stepford, I saw two of my girls in full bloom. Even though it was drizzling and damp, there they were, wide open and glowing with color. They were bright, vibrant, and alive. If there was ever anything or anybody who made the most out of such a short period of life, it was those girls right there. It occured to me, maybe they were blooming on a rainy day, but you'd never know to look at their smiling faces. It didn't even matter that it was raining, or that it seemed the elements around them were all trying to mute their showy display. In fact, it seems like those two ladies took the elements and turned them to their favor. The dampness of the weather really brought out their color, like water does to an opal and their scent mixed with that earthy smell of wet grass and trees, and that freshness that comes after a cleansing rain.It dawned on me, even though the weather was bad, my girls were just as beautiful as if it was sunny, and that they were more than able to adapt to the conditions around them to further highlight their unique style. It was just that I was unable to see them making the most of their situation, and blooming in spite of adversity. Sometimes we forget that beauty can exist even when our environment isn't perfect, and that sometimes true beauty is brought out by the ability to turn what's around us (which may seem kind of blah or bleak) into something amazing. Just a thought. :)