No, I am not referring to cicadas.

I have wanted this shrub since the year 2000.

I helped plant a church courtyard in all white flowers.

I desperately wanted the Camellia japonica ‘White by the Gate’.

It looked like the Lutheran symbol, the white rose.

We had to settle for some other white camellias.

We also planted a white rose and white azaleas.

Nothing on that side thrived, except the Japanese anemones ‘Honorine Jobert.’

Eventually all shrubs came out for rehab and the anemones took over.

Now there are no plants there, due to a new project going in.

When I stumbled upon this lovely shrub after all these years,

I took it as a sign to accept this change.

Now this long-awaited shrub is in my yard.

The bloom is everything I dreamed it would be.

Hold on to those dreams.

They may eventually come true, even if it is seventeen years later.

FLOWER