Some of them are obvious – the plein air painters are given away by their clever folding easel contraptions, fistfulls of brushes and color smeared canvases. But there are other Artists lurking and working in the garden and you’d never know it … These secret Artists also might not be inclined to call their particular creative creations “Art” (with a capital A) but guess what?! They are!! (Says me!)

One secret Artist-at-work is Dianne Whitehead. Dianne volunteers in the Rose Garden (a Florabunda, doncha know) and has also been one of the crew creating floral arrangements for the house. This week she went all-out for a friend’s daughter’s wedding and there are flowers everywhere! No one can tell me that this stunning arrangement that she made for the front hall isn’t Art!

And then there are the guys. Fred and Dan spend a chunk of every week on ride’em mowers back and forth across acres of lawn and they evidently use that time wisely in creative rumination. Fred has sculpted a new Idea Bed arbor/ornament each year for the last 4, using bamboo, plus. Last year’s ornament, a “tree” in the middle of the garden caught the most comments so far. Visitors asked “What is that?”, “What’s it for?”, “What’s it do?” Some people thought it was an osprey nest; some thought it was weird and some, like me, thought it was a gorgeous piece of Art. (Since when does Art have to be functional? — That’s Craft’s job.) Yesterday Fred and Dan chopped down the “tree” and yanked it out. Funny Fred said “No wonder the tree died – there aren’t any roots!” and as they were installing fresh bamboo corner posts, Boss-Lady Julie asked “Is that for my hammock?” Turns out she wasn’t far off! Here’s a teaser of the new arbor/ornament roofed with – have you ever seen a net made out of bamboo??? Seeing is believing! (but not for napping.)

And the bloom pic of the day: the Artist is nature playing the Catalpa tree. Sing it!

It wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t hurt to breathe! It’s 81 degrees in the potting shed right now and the humidity is only around 70%. But for June it’s hot! And visibility is down to stupid and Rhode Islanders have been warned not to breathe-in this afternoon due to stupidly elevated ozone levels. Usually we can keep breathing at least into the second week of July…

We’re in the last push to plant before the 4th of July (Gail’s deadline since she usually takes next week off). Yesterday the Deadheads finished planting the new beds in the Display Garden and two weather resistant Rockettes planted the last stragglers in the Idea Beds today. I think I can speak for everyone, plants included, when I say that it’s hard not to wilt in all this mug! So we encouraged the volunteers to go home after tea (The Rockettes today had none of that and just moved into the potting shed shade to sort tulip bulbs). My days have been spent watering and pondering things like how sticky I am and how the wind is an awesome garden designer! Asclepias (Milkweed) has self-sown all over the Idea Beds and I am loving every minute of it. I couldn’t have come up with a more outrageous combination than this milkweed and yarrow if I tried (and I do try!).

The pond is looking pretty low – I hope we get rain soon – I hate to think what could happen to my favorite frogs if it stays dry. (Thunderstorms are predicted for tonight and tomorrow but fingers crossed: we’ve heard that one before.) Yesterday I came crashing into the water garden and startled this pretty little heron from its wade. I remembered that I should walk more gingerly this morning only after I had frightened it away again…

We ran from full-tilt planting, past Go, to marathon watering. There have been these strings of spectacularly sunny and breezy days, so crisp it seems like it’s possible to see all the way to the Azores. Not a normal June altogether! (But then again what’s normal? – Last June we had deluge after deluge…) After 2 days away from Blithewold though, it seems like the toddlers became teenagers – the Sweetpeas are shoulder high all of a sudden and blooming madly and the Nicotiana sylvestris grew from cracker-size to tea kettles just in the last few days and there are dahlias (‘Sneezy’) blooming in the North Garden. I don’t feel like I need to admonish anything for slow growing anymore – now it’s me that’s got to run to catch up!

At least watering (by hand) gives me ample opportunity to pause and smell the roses – in this case, sweet peas! I am currently head-over-heels for one called ‘Nimbus’. My other true love on the fence is Clematis ‘Roguchi’. It’s been blooming for about a month and holds up beautifully in arrangements. (our volunteer arrangers from the Bristol and Barrington Garden Clubs have been doing a great job picking!) I’m really glad plants are not jealous lovers – we can be floozies in the garden and have busloads of favorites and if we change our minds tomorrow, no hard feelings!

In a comment on my last post, a good friend of mine spoke (rather eloquently, I thought) about a dreamy, different sort of world than the one we inhabit now. He said, “i envision a world in which … everything in the form of entertainment comes from real people right in front of you, and communication might be slower than it is now, but more effective, and everyone smiles more …” (Brendan’s comment, in its entirety, is a click away at the end of my last post). By all accounts the Rock Garden Soiree was the kind of evening that offered a glimpse into that beautiful world. Marjorie Jeffries played her own compositions on the flute while people soaked up falling light in the garden, sipped wine and enjoyed eachother’s company. The evening was a perfect topping to a variable New England day – the threatening rain gave way to clear, mosquito-less skies, a breeze for the Wednesday night yacht race in Bristol harbor and that perfect balance of humidity that probably made everyone’s hair look just right. I wasn’t there but Gail took the pictures of gorgeous people enjoying a gorgeous evening. The next Soiree will be in the North Garden on July 11. Let’s go!

Gail and I were “real people” entertainment today at the Newport Flower Show – allowing us another glimpse of a beautiful world… We gave a tag-team demonstration on how to create a terrarium (a beautiful mini-world) in front of about 70 people. (There was only one mic so instead of just finishing Gail’s sentences, I had to come up with a whole bunch of my own! It was kinda fun! –I was actually too exhausted to be my usual terrified…). This is a peek at the demo terrarium I made with the most adorable begonia! (I think it might have to live at my house for awhile – I’m sure there’s no room for it here…!)

I am constantly on the hunt for the right-tool-for-the-job and both Gail and I have amassed an array of sunscreen that is starting to resemble a pharmacy shelf display and is draining our wallets. Last week one of our volunteers brought in a copy of a Consumer Reports article that rates all the sunscreens (Neutrogena 45 and NoAd 45 got the highest ratings) and it also brought up the question of whether nanosized particles of the minerals, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide might be small enough to enter the bloodstream and travel to the brain causing diseases like Parkinson’s. According to everything I’ve read (just a little this morning) the jury is still out on nano particles. The Consumer Reports article also said that a lot of sunscreens aren’t actually protecting us against UVA radiation. Great. And according to other sources, there’s some debate over whether sunscreen really protects against skin cancer and all the chemicals in the non-mineral based sunscreens might cause big problems too. This article from National Geographic sorted it out a little for me – at least it was what I wanted to hear: mineral based sunscreens are probably the best bet – just make sure to use a lot and reapply after sweating or swimming. (I haven’t found that they sting when I sweat either and I have canary-in-the-coalmine skin…)

Even on a fog bound, rainy day like today, it’s important to wear the screen (just in case) – it’s those UVA rays, doncha know… This morning the Rockettes scoured the Rock Garden for weeds, yellow leaves and deadheads while Gail and I tried to name and label all of the plants. Thank you again, Marion Murray (our Rock Garden Guru transplanted to the wilds of Utah) for keeping such great lists!!. I think we’re ready to show off at the Soiree tonight! After tea, while it rained, we all washed the sooty mold and scale off the citrus’s. They look so much better! One visitor (my mom, having an Alice in Wonderland sort of day) said they looked like we were painting the roses red – it was that kind of job!

Another “part 2″ for today is the Tamarix is blooming again! Here it is with Amorpha and a chorus line of cormorants. Another visitor (not my mom) commented that she was surprised to see it blooming so early (she was more surprised to hear from me that it had already bloomed a month ago) but she got me wondering and sure enough I had the wrong name all along. It’s not Tamarix ramosissima (which blooms late summer) but either T. parviflora or T. tetrandra. Fred, Dan – Help me out!