The ‘Ice Follies’ – the first of our daffodils to show their faces have already started to fade. They’re not fading away just yet but the bright yellow trumpet they were born with is a creamy white now, signifying their end. We wouldn’t want them to stick around. Just imagine if we had daffodils lasting the summer – it would be so very wrong. Their colors only belong to spring, never summer – at least not in quite the same way. We might wish in theory for plants that bloom for months on end but when we have them we generally stop noticing them after the first few weeks. We move on because the season moves on and so the world turns.

By and by, the daffodils will go by and we’ll be ready for them to go because something else will come into bloom and capture our hearts and all our attention. (That said, in case you’re planning a visit, the daffs will still be outstanding for our opening weekend and if the weather cooperates, they’ll be a stunning sight well into the next week or so.)

The rain and then the heat of the last few days has more things blooming at once than the steady succession we’re used to. We do have to look quickly lest we miss any of the show. Every day something is opening up and another something is fading away. The confectionery pink petals of the Magnolia x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ might start to fall apart now but the Water Garden cherries (Prunus x yedoensis ‘Akebono’) are just starting to open. Some things, like bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) in the Rock Garden are short lived anyway – I feel so lucky whenever I get to see them in bloom. But maybe everything will slow down a little now that temperatures are dropping back into the normal range. Regardless of the speed of spring, my advice is to seize the day with both eyes.

What spring changes are you focused on?

The daffodils are a little early for their own party. It’s kind of like planning a surprise for someone who decides out of the blue to drop by early just as you’re putting up the streamers. No matter. They’re here (I might even call it peak this week) so you should be here too. Although the days and nights are forecast to be on the warm side, I’m sure the show will still be stupendous this coming weekend when the house opens for the season – and remember the grounds are already open (year-round). We’ll celebrate the daffodils from April 10 through May 2. And if the dear daffs begin to go by during their official “days” we’ll put the party hat on everything else. (We’ll have Epimedium days! Trillium days! Crabapple days! Tulip days!…)

For what it’s worth, I don’t mind when the daffs begin to go by because the focus can shift to other beautiful things that might otherwise be overlooked. –Like the teeny-tiny samaras on the red maples. And of course, toads.

Meanwhile in the gardens we can just about check cutting back perennials off our list. We finally got to the soggy Rock Garden and North Garden on Friday, and Gail and I spent today starting to prune the Rose Garden. As I was being pinched and scratched and grabbed at, I tried really hard to remember why I love roses so much. I’m sure it will come to me…

Did you check anything off your list this weekend or did you simply celebrate spring?

It’s not often that little Rhody makes the national news. By now most of you have probably already heard that we just had a “100 year flood”. (Only we’re not supposed to call it that. – It’s just that the flooding here was worse than any on record. Ever.) The first rainstorm last week, while I was away, already set us back a bit in the gardens. It was too squishy-wet for Gail and the volunteers to prune roses or cut back perennials without compacting the beds and then this week was a washout. Literally.

Much of Bristol was under water on Tuesday, mostly because storm drains couldn’t handle the deluge, but compared to other parts of the state we were on the lucky side. All things considered, I’m happy to report that Blithewold didn’t fare too badly. The major damage was to our paths, which became a network of grand canyons. Visitors beware: the Shrub Walk is CLOSED until further notice.

Not only have the grounds become a slippery slope (everyone, please be careful walking around the grounds!) but spring seems to be suddenly sliding along at a prodigious rate. No fooling, the daffodils are refusing to wait for Daffodil Days (April 10 – May 2) and that’s why I included my first Daff Cam shot of the season at the top of this post. We’re hoping that they hold off peaking until at least the 10th. I’ll keep you updated.

Spring is coming along so quickly that I’m suddenly feeling a little panicked. The roses broke dormancy last week – right on time with the forsythia, which is a good week early as compared to the last few years. I’m desperate to get the roses pruned so they start sending all this good early energy into only the strongest canes. We still have a lot of perennials to cut back too and it’s so much trickier to do that when the new growth is growing gangbusters and getting in the way of snips. Not only that but now that spring is here and there’s everything to do all at once, I’m worried that in my busy-ness and hurry to catch up on the work I’ll miss my favorite season altogether. It’s an occupational hazard – but hopefully preventable. I want to hold onto each moment and see every unfurl. So with the sun set to be out all weekend, I plan to put my own brakes on and take as much of it in as I can. You too?

Do you worry that spring will go by before you can fully enjoy it? Maybe an early start to spring means it will linger longer? We can only hope…