GR translation: in leaf or flower

[David Morris]

I think he's refering to women as spring plants amidst a wintery city.

On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 2:43 AM, Mike Jing
<gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
> P22.36-P23.6   The stars he pastes up are colored only to go with how
> he feels that day, blue on up to golden. Never to rank a single
> one—how can he? Nobody sees the map but Tantivy, and Christ they’re
> all beautiful . . . in leaf or flower around his wintering city, in
> teashops, in the queues babushkaed and coatwrapped, sighing, sneezing,
> all lisle legs on the curbstones, hitch-hiking, typing or filing with
> pompadours sprouting yellow pencils, he finds them—dames, tomatoes,
> sweater girls—yes it is a little obsessive maybe but . . . “I know
> there is wilde love and joy enough in the world,“ preached Thomas
> Hooker, „as there are wilde Thyme, and other herbes; but we would have
> garden love, and garden joy, of Gods owne planting.”
>
> Is there any special meaning to the phrase "in leaf or flower"?