Whoa – hey. My eyes are squinty! What’s happening? — Hold on, I remember this — could it be?… It IS! THE SUN’S OUT!!! Everybody up and at’em! Let’s go! Just look at the sun glinting on the (brandnewly working again after years of not!) North Garden fountain! The Daffodils will surely not be long now! And check out what else is blooming – in the Rose Garden – wee Tulipa ‘Johann Strauss’ looking a little chewed (oh deer!) but so so sweet.

Nor’easters tend to stick around like a tedious dinner guest and this one is definitely over staying its welcome. This week is probably a wash and the ground is still pretty squishy (with rain in the forecast through Thursday, the property might be wellie worthy for days.) Good news is, the rock and water gardens are not completely under water anymore — look at the difference! And just to tantalize you, see how sweet the rock garden is right now! Unfortunately though, the rock and water gardens are off limits to visitors until it dries out a bit (I snuck in – shhhh! don’t tell the guys! – but wait, I work here…). Fred and Dan have done a beautiful job cleaning up the Bosquet – not a twig out of place even after last night’s gale and the Daffodils are so close!! Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be balmy — in the low 60′s – can you stand it?! With the sun out and the daffs peeking (but not quite peaking) it’s bound to be just right for a walk around Blithewold. Plus you might get to see some fine fashion on fellow visitors – rubber shoes and shorts are all-the-rage!

Meanwhile in the greenhouse, Gail and I are fed up to our cotyledons with transplanting. Remember, it’s a good idea when transplanting lanky stretchy things like tomatoes to sink them up to their necks – good roots will grow from the stem.

Water, water everywhere! High tide this morning was HIGH. When I drove in this morning I wondered “what the heck is that is out in the bay?…” It was the GARDEN.

There’s nothing like a big storm to infuse a little drama in the daily slog. I would say that last night’s storm wasn’t pretty but, in a way, it was. Destructive, certainly! — but also beautiful in an awesome sort of way. (People with tree smashed cars and houses and flooded basements may disagree with me…) Blithewold lost some sizable tree pieces but the damage isn’t too terrible considering the size and location of the property and the sheer number of special specimens. (knock-on-wood; the storm’s not done yet!)

The Daffodils, thank goodness, look fine. If more of them were open, they might all look like this:

Most of the Daffs in the Bosquet are still looking snug in the bud though and quite perky despite all the wind, rain and sticks. By the time the weather improves, we should be cleaned up again and with any luck (cross your fingers) the Daffodils will be ready too!

The gardens have all had their spring clean-up and Julie, Gail and I even got to the Rose Garden’s east side climbing roses today! Pruning climbers isn’t rocket science but it’s definitely tricky and totally stickery! Each plant was thinned out to a half dozen or so newer canes and those canes were cut way back, arched slightly and retied to the fence. The climbers might not flower a whole lot this year, but next year’s show should be outstanding! (Sometimes patience is a virtue.)

So we’re ready to open – but the weather – ugh. Check the forecast. It looks like Saturday is this weekend’s best bet. The Daffodils are waiting for a little more heat before they strut their stuff, but the upside is you won’t be distracted from seeing other things quietly waking from a long (long) winter’s nap!

Yesterday was a lone decent-ish day in the middle of a whole bunch of dirty ones – with more ick on the way in the form of sleet, rain, wind and are they really forcasting snow?! So the Wednesday Rockettes and some flexi-schedule Thursday Florabundas spent a full morning cutting back and tidying up 3 of Blithewold’s gardens so that we could say “we’re ready!” for opening. If you can stand the cold (rain, wind, sleet and other early spring treats), late March to early April is a great time to cut back your perennials. They haven’t grown much yet (at least here they haven’t) and we could really cut close to the crown without beheading the new stuff coming up. (I can’t stand to see sticks, nubs, stubs in the spring -or any- garden. It’s a compulsion almost worthy of medical attention. I also can’t handle bent spoons. Call me wacky.) The North Garden looked like this a week ago and now, although it’s super quiet, it’s super tidy!

They (who?- does anyone know?) say roses should be spring pruned before the Forsythia blooms. I saw only the before and after in the Rose Garden and the contrast was so dramatic I became all screechy with amazement. Last week I stood in front of a thicket of climbers that looked like this

and this
with pruners poised but totally incapable of decision! Now, after a morning with a couple of people who are able to commit, the climbers on the west side look

like this.

I wish I had been there to see and apprentice to the masters at work. Julie calmly said, “You just get a feel for where to cut. It’s probably not done correctly…” Maybe a militant rosarian would scold, but looks pretty perfect to the rest of us, doesn’t it?