Everybody has a different cue for letting ourselves admit that it’s finally spring. For some of us (me), spring officially begins when we sow the sweet peas (back around President’s Day). Others might notice spring for the first time when the forsythia blooms its head off, or when we have that first t-shirt-weather day or when the calendar says it’s so.

For some, it’s all about daffodils and Daffodil Days here at Blithewold. Well, a lot of them (dare I say “most”?) are open and we’re opening for the season starting Sunday, so no one can deny that it’s really truly spring now. The daffodils should continue to be in peak into next week. They love these cooler temperatures.

We’ve been hustling to get ready and have had an extra spring in our step because of opening two weeks ahead of schedule to better match our timing with Nature’s. We’ve fluffed and we’ve puffed and from here on in it’s a work in progress. Like any real garden, ours are in perennial transition and change by the day. Every year we focus attention on a particular garden: this year the North Garden will look quite different from years past. We’re adjusting to a new design that should make the space more welcoming to visitors, and we’ll be in there planting and rearranging every chance we get.

Even if you come just to see the daffodils, don’t miss the Rock Garden. This is the start of its favorite season. And you can’t miss the Rose Garden unless you have your eyes closed coming out of the Visitor’s Center. Open ‘em up. That garden will just keep looking more and more glorious as days go by.

So stick around. Visit as often as you possibly can and celebrate a whole new season by enjoying every bloom of it.

Which isn’t to say that anything is broken, in need of fixing. I just don’t ever remember magnolias blooming before the forsythia. Saucer magnolias are out all over town, our hedge of M. x loebneri ‘Leonard Messel’ by the parking lot started up last week and even our star magnolia along the front drive, which is notoriously late, is beginning to open from the top down. The cherry trees and tulips – early ones like ‘Analita’ – can’t seem to hold their horses either.

The weather is a little out of sequence too but we cynical optimists expected that. We’re short on rain – I’ve heard we’re about 5″ down from normal. And last weeks summer-ish temps were followed last night by a bitter chill. Luckily it was too windy for frost to settle so all is well but one flat of shocked pansies. And they’ll recover. As much as we’d like to worry about fruit trees being wiped out, the Providence Journal reported that the apples are fine too. Early peaches and plum buds might have taken a hit but the orchardist they interviewed didn’t seem too upset about it. He said he won’t have to do as much thinning later.

Even though all the books will say that transplanting and dividing is best done before the forsythia and daffodils come into peak bloom, you haven’t missed your chance by any means. Go to it and keep at it. Just make sure you give everything a good drink to help it settle in. If you have (prematurely) set out tender plants to harden off, bring them back inside or cover them with a sheet tonight because if the wind dies down overnight like it’s supposed to, they could get nipped. If you forget to cover them, spray them with the hose first thing in the morning.

If you want to catch the exact moment of daffodil peak here at Blithewold, this chilly weather is your friend. They’re really really close now and should hang tight through the weekend at least. The mansion opens for the season and Daffodil Days on April 1!

Yesterday a reporter from one of the local papers called to ask about the daffodils. She wondered when they would bloom; are they early; how long would they last; and what comes next? A very popular barrage of questions for this time of year.

I could tell her – and I’ll tell you – that they’re blooming now and I’ll even go so far as to guess that they’ll probably start peaking next week and continue into our Daffodil Days celebration that starts on the 1st of April. They are early – a good two or three weeks early and there’s no way to know how long they’ll last. Cool temperatures, particularly at night helps prolong the show – next week promises so far to be cooler than this – and we have a good variety of early and late bloomers so unless we’re hit with a heatwave, the show should go on for a few weeks altogether.

She asked what would we DO if the daffodils went by quickly?! Do? Besides enjoying it while it lasts, and trying to keep up, there’s nothing to do. Gardeners know there’s no predicting nature. We might be more dialed in than the average non-gardener but only to the extent that we know – and accept – that anything goes.

So what happens after the daffodils bloom? Everything! Tulips for starters. The reporter also wondered when would be the best time to visit Blithewold? Of course, I’m the wrong person to ask because I think it’s beautiful all the time. But you really can’t go wrong to time a visit for May or June. July and August tend to be hot but lovely. September is really spectacular. October too.

But if you love spring and don’t want to miss it, come soon. It is happening fast this year. So fast that if you picked a spot under a maple, next to a cinnamon fern or the winter hazel you could almost watch the changes as they happen. And try not to miss the other spring ephemerals. Our intern, Tricia spotted the very tiniest: new blooms on the European ginger (Asarum europaeum). Not as spectacular as a daffodil perhaps, but I’d have hated to miss it. The gardens and grounds are open.

Are you making any predictions this year? When will your daffodils bloom? Or have they already?

I can’t think of a better way to spend a record-breaking official first day of spring than playing musical plants out in the garden. At home I move plants around usually because I didn’t put them in the right place in the first place. (Left to my own devices, I’m an incurable plunker). But here we move plants to change things up every year – as well as to get them in the right place. Plants’ sweet spots always want finessing even if you’ve given it careful thought.

The trick to playing musical plants this early in the season is to have an excellent memory – or to have taken really good notes – or to have left labels.

I always forget how difficult it is to identify perennials at this stage, as they’re just starting to emerge, or if they’re still just a gnarl of knobby crown at the surface. And it’s like an eye-test to find them under the shredded leaf mulch before stepping on them.

It’s also really important to remember, when you can identify the tiny sprigs emerging from a fist-sized crown, exactly how big the plant is likely to get. We want an intensely planted garden but we also want to make sure plants have room to grow without being sat upon by something else. I’ll freely admit to being guilty of “mis-under-estimating” in order to fit more in. Sometimes combinations work anyway and sometimes we have to move things around again next spring. But if the garden was always the same we’d get bored. Wouldn’t you?

I’m pretty excited about some of the changes in the Display Garden. Today I went from being worried that holding onto our theme of planting for the pollinators would keep the Display Garden looking too much the same, to being sure that it will look fabulously new and different this year. And we probably only moved a dozen plants around in there so far. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to make a garden exciting again. The same is true at home: as soon as I transplant one thing to the right spot I get jazzed about the whole season.

Do you get a move on in the spring too? Do you move plants so the garden will look different every year or to finesse perfection?

Speaking of getting a move on, the daffodils are. I’d hate for you to miss any of the show and it’s just beginning so here’s the first official daff-cam shot.

Even though the mansion won’t be open until April 1, the grounds are open daily (year-round.) Come see for yourself.

As we get closer to Daffodil Days here at Blithewold I keep expecting to be asked for a tally of how many are in bloom. I’m ready for it. Today there are 3 daffodils in full bloom in the Bosquet (out of an estimated 50,000). So we’re still a-ways away from peak. But stay tuned.

Two Cornelian cherries (Cornus mas) are open (out of 2 on the property – so we’re talking 100%). They’re lovely.There’s also a fabulous black pussy willow in bloom in one of the nursery beds. My guess is that it’s Salix gracilistyla ‘Melanostachys’ and I’ll do my best to catch it when the anthers appear because I think it will be even more spectacularly weird then.

Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) are starting to show true blue as is this sweet patch of Scilla mischtschenkoana ‘Tubergeniana’ in the Rock Garden.

Also in the Rock Garden one rock cress (Arabis caucasica ‘Variegata’), which is mostly reverted back to plain green from variegation — oops, is starting to bloom. And there are boat loads of skunk cabbage blooming just as they should. As warm as it’s been we’re only left to wonder what the forsythia is waiting for. All in good time I guess. I shouldn’t want to rush it. It’s only mid-March, after all.

What’s blooming in your garden? A lot of early birds? Head over to May Dreams Gardens to see what’s blooming elsewhere — it looks like spring is early all over.