puchella—Early, even before the daffodils. Slim leaves. Flowers an odd shade of lavender and tinged red. Slightly larger.
stellata chrysantha (originally considered a species, chrysantha)—Curved-down blue-green leaves, six-inch stems; cherry-flushed yellow flowers opening to flat stars (in April).
EPILOGUE
There is a touch of sadness to any book that is published posthumously. It means that an author who has devoted years to acquiring a skill with words and their ways, one who has something to say, will write no more.
This book, All About Miniature Plants and Gardens, Indoors and Out, is the work of Bernice Gaines Brilmayer. It was written in the last months of her life and was practically completed except for the mechanics of preparing it for publication. Although she didn’t realize the seriousness of her illness, she asked me to do the final work on the manuscript.
Her dedication, “For my family, again and again. The future is coming closer,” is typical of the magnificent woman she was. She lived for the days when we would be free of the commercial world, when we could write, dream, plant, and write. It was to be for, and with, the family she loved so well. I’ve never heard the philosophy of her existence expressed so well as by an old fishing friend, Captain Bill Stiles of Stone Harbor, New Jersey. Captain Bill, of the Skipper, is not one who professes to write phrases and words, but he does know people. On the long ride out to the fishing grounds off the Jersey coast Bill used to observe her. When the anchor was down, Bill would give the order to “drop lines, Folks.” He noted that she was always the last to get her line in the water. Her family came first and she waited until they were set.
If ever I do a biography of Bernice, the title will be “The Last to Get Her Line Down.”
The family to which she dedicated her books, has a dedication to her:
TO BERNICE—A GALLANT WOMAN
1913–1962
IN LOVING MEMORY
THE FAMILY YOU LOVED SO MUCH