Timing

Timing is everything.

Blogger was down for several days, my updates and garden chores got ahead of me, and now we are off to St. Louis.

This spring has been so slow and dry (no appreciable rain for weeks, just under an inch in 29 days).

So everything is tardy.  And now as we get ready to leave for a week, everything is ready to pop while we are gone: the camassias are opening but not quite there yet (I hope they'll still be in full bloom when we get back):

not quite open yet

The red peony 'Blaze' has such a short bloom time, and it is ready to burst open, but will be gone in a week.

The slender deutzias have pearls of buds and will open in a few days.  

The aronia blooms, which look like little apple blossoms, are ready to open, but not quite there yet.

aronias getting ready

The doublefile viburnum is ready to bloom, all the flowers are opening but are still greenish.  Will they be there when we get back?

Doublefile starting to bloom

Doublefile viburnum flowers

Same thing with the redtwig dogwoods, although they are not as showy as the viburnum.  But the shrubs are covered right now.

Redtwig dogwoods beginning to flower

Redtwig dogwood blossom

Thank goodness for the cute geums, still blooming away, and some potted dianthus, and the tiarellas, now in full bloom.

In the time since my last blog post a week ago, we have been to the Berkshire Botanical Garden to see the tree houses (disappointing, but the garden is a delight in all seasons), and to the Glastonbury plant sale.  I've planted more things (annuals, some Blue Eyed Grass, tall plumbagos on bamboo teepees, some low boxwoods called Tide Hill) in the new border of the Secret Garden.

I got a smokebush Cotinus 'Grace' at Farmington Valley Nursery and put it in at the corner of the garden above the driveway.  I want to keep it as a cut back shrub for its foliage, but the plant already has flowers forming!

I've put down 20 bags of mulch... it doesn't go far!  That's 1.5 cubic yards so far.

I also did surgery on the Stewartia monadelpha, which had winter damage on the top half, not leafing out above the middle.

 

I chopped off the dead branches and leader, but left enough of the dead stump to tie a living side branch to in an upright orientation --- hopefully the tied branch will become the new leader.

How I hated to lose the graceful tall form of this little tree. 

New Pagoda Dogwood

Low 70s today, a little cloudy but pleasant.

I planted the new pagoda dogwood today in place of the Silver Cloud redbd that didn't make it from last year.

























I also planted the Cotinus 'Grace' by the Knockout roses at the top of the driveway.

Can't wait to see both fill in.

Still Cold

A cold, overcast, windy day, in the 50s.

The Knockout roses are leafing out:

The fothergillas are blooming, but the one on the right looks sparse. 

The one at the left edge of the walk has way more flowers:

The new gardens are planted:

This is the first year I have noticed any blooms on the redbud out in the meadow.  They are sparse and only on the top branches:

The Silver Cloud redbud looks deader than dead.  Only a bud or two on the trunk, nothing in the canopy.  Branches are stiff and crack easily.

Downstate Shopping

Cold rainy and wet, barely into the low 50s.  We went nursery shopping today in the pouring rain.

First: Broken Arrow.  A gorgeous 7 gallon Pagoda dogwood.  A tiny persimmon.  Another Deutzia gracilis 'Nikko' to add to the east side.

Next: Ballek's.  Lady in Red salvias.  Pretty Much Picasso petunia.  A little dianthus for the tufa pot.

Next: Natureworks.  Four big tiarellas 'Candy Striper' to add to my mini drift in Northern Exposure, and a dill plant.

We're soaking wet and cold, but I got to visit Ballek's and Natureworks for the first time, and Broken Arrow is always a treat. 

The Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) will not be planted as a focal point in the new Secret Garden border, but I'll find another spot for it.  In front of the dry creek bed to replace the (dead?) Silver Cloud redbud?  It's the species, by the way, not the more delicate variegated or golden leaved dogwood.

What's Blooming

In the 60s today, cool and overcast.

We used up all the dirt!  The full 6 cubic yards is completely gone.  We cut an extension to the small garden in front of Meadow's Edge and then filled in low spots in all the existing gardens, and now it is all gone, the pavers in the driveway are cleaned up, and we are back to normal.

What looks good on May 2?  Take a look:

Lynwood forsythias are still blooming and the Bloodgood maple is leafing out

Epimediums are in bloom.  This is Rubrum, under the maple in Meadow's Edge

And Frohnleiten under the dogwood.  It's really filled out finally

Ogon spirea in Meadow's Edge really pops

cute little Geums

Forget Me Nots (Mysotis) under the Silver Cloud redbud are spreading

Magnolia Elizabeth

Kinnikinnik is blooming

Kinnikinnik up close: so pretty

Orange Dream Japanese maple leafing out; Huskers Red penstemon below

In the woods the wild cherry trees are in bloom.

First Nice Day of Spring

Callery pear is blooming

Cool, partly sunny and in the high 60s today.  It was the first nice day of April... the 29th.  The past few days have been drizzly, gloomy, gray.  But things are starting to leaf out.

I got up at 6 a.m. to watch the royal wedding, then headed out and got the following done today:

• Moved all the Grow Lo sumacs to the hazel garden. Three more just came from Forestfarm.  The ideas is to have a massed ground cover there.
• Planted all the Chocolate Chip coleus under the Orange Dream Japanese maple.
• Planted three new Midnight Rose heucheras in the back of the Birch Garden.
• Planted three new Physostegia Miss Manners (and divided two) in Meadow's Edge.
• Planted all the inkberry hollies and fothergillas and the dwarf Oriental spruce in the new Secret Garden border.  Jim dug the holes for me.
• Planted the pots for the patio: violas and pelargoniums.  Some say violas want full sun, some say full shade.  Huh?

the view today of Olmstead's side yard

So late to leaf out, they look dead against all the greening up that is going on: the winterberry hollies, the clethra (really dead looking) the lespedeza (but there is new growth at the bottom, the voles didn't kill it), the ceanothus New Jersey Teas (same thing, new growth, but a lot of black branches).  Also late to leaf out: black gums, river birches.

first Geum bloom of the season

Magnolia 'Elizabeth' getting ready to bloom

Miserable

Miserable Day.

More

More damp, more clouds, more rain.  High 50s today, so not so cold, but still dreary and wet. We got over half an inch of rain the day before Easter, now drizzle today.

Despite the soppy wet ground and drizzle I planted more trees.

I put in two Lowe's trees that are a good 5 feet tall: a Red Oak and an Autumn Blaze maple.  I had poor luck with two other Autumn Blaze maples from Lowe's (lost both a couple years ago) but we'll see how this one does.  Both went at the foot of the steepest part of the back hill.

More moves: I moved the two tiny white pines from the Road Cut to the edge of the meadow right behind the black gum, where I can see them and they will provide some structure.  One of them I planted three times in three different holes until I got it right where I wanted it.

I moved the bearded irises --- again.  I had just dug them up and divided them and put them in the Birch Garden (you're supposed to divide in fall, oh well).  Now I dug the divisions up and moved them to the front walk.

They are so pretty, but I just can't figure out where to grow them.

Easter Sunday

Easter is very late this year and so is spring.  There really hasn't been a nice day all month... a few hours of pleasanter weather, but otherwise cold, chilly, windy and wet.

Deep thick fog today, Easter Sunday.  It rained all yesterday. 

Two days ago we had a frost and I had to cover the goatsbeard and gauras that I had just planted out.  Frost is always hardest at the dip where the dry creekbed is.

Stepping Stones

In the 40s today, off and on sunshine, and a blowy gusty fierce wind. 

It's still overly cool and that's a blessing when there is still so much digging and earth moving to do.  We finished shaping the new Secret Garden border, and I added stepping stones bisecting the area, which I really like:

The ones in the grass are set into the ground so Jim can mow over them.

Now, plant shopping.  

Finally, after so many weeks waiting for this 'Okame' cherry to bloom, here it is:

























Some other spring scenes this cool windy day:

From the front door.

Lynwood forsythias by the road are in bloom.

East side.  Redtwig dogwood branch leafing out.