This week we just about finished planting 300-something new perennials – with the garden volunteers’ help, thank goodness! – and that meant it was time to pick up another order. One of the highlights of Gail’s and my year is our spring trip to Avant Gardens in N. Dartmouth, MA to grab our order and see if there are maybe a few other things we can’t garden without. We found a lot this year. We should have brought the truck.

The owners, Kathy and Chris Tracey have a love of plants that is obvious and totally infectious and their nursery is like a fabulously curated art gallery. — But less fancy-pants; it’s as comfortable as a kitchen. They grow and sell plants that they know are awesome performers and they trial every new plant that intrigues them in their own garden, which is attached to the nursery. They’re also famous for fabulous pot combinations and the most sublime trough gardens. Seeing their plants so artfully planted and growing gangbusters just makes us want everything even more.

The nursery is well off the beaten track but so easy to find. Just head north (away from the mall) from the Faunce Corners exit off 195 in North Dartmouth and follow the road until it Ts. Take a left there and go winding along the shady country road until you just begin to wonder if you’ll ever get there. Card carrying Blithewold members who visit Avant Gardens will be richly rewarded with a 10% discount but they also have a fabulous online catalog here. If you aren’t already hooked to her feed, Kathy writes one of the most read-ably fun and informative blogs with the best name: Garden Foreplay. The plants she sells are definitely seductive…

Have you been to Avant Gardens yet? Did you find treasures too?

We’re all – plants and gardeners – breathing a sigh of relief after our rain. It was a good soaking of anywhere from 2.5 – 5 inches depending on who you talk to. My bucket had about 4″ in it but I’m not sure rain gauges caught as much. (Some of the rain definitely fell sideways.) However much we got, we needed it and it must have put a dent in our drought. My fingers are crossed that we’ll start getting more rain at regular intervals, during the night and never on weekends…

The tulips did take a beating like I thought they might but I think they’re still quite beautiful, even broken. Nature is a drama queen after all, tragically lovely most of the time.

The rain came in the nick of time for planting, if not for the tulips. We just finished transplanting – raise your hand if, like me, you were madly dashing around your garden trying to get the last things divided and moved before the skies opened – and have just received our biggest order of perennials and annuals. The annuals will rest inside the greenhouse for a few weeks more until we can be sure we’re past our last frost date (I feel so badly for the people who got snow with this storm. How diabolical is it to go from 80 degree summer weather back to winter in the span of a week?) but we’ll start planting the perennials this week. Going into moist soil, they’ll have a much better chance of taking off quickly and thriving without us having to baby them along like we have the transplants.

Did you get the rain you needed? (Did you get SNOW?) Did you finish transplanting in time or will you do more now?

We were pretty worried this winter, when the oaks withheld their acorns, that the squirrels would eat every last tulip bulb. Thank goodness they left a few for us and our visitors to enjoy – it really was very generous of them. We’re all especially glad they left a few Akebono in the Rose Garden, and everybody’s other favorite, Miranda in the Display Garden. This is our second year for Akebono. We can’t get enough of that yellow rimmed in a pencil of red and dashed with green. Miranda, a new one for us, doesn’t even look like a tulip. More like a peony with flowers the size of cereal bowls and so heavy they’ve been snapping right off their stem. And their color is so intensely over-saturated that the only way I could get an approximate shot of it was to go out first thing on a cloudy morning.

I’ve heard a lot of visitors exclaim over the size of the tulips as if they’ve never seen anything like them. I have to wonder, since tulip bulbs come with everything they need right inside the bulb, and their showiness has little to do with how awesome our soil is, if most people buy inferior box-store and joblot tulips rather than ordering from reputable bulb companies. I can see the appeal of one-stop shopping but I believe everyone’s garden deserves better! We buy our bulbs from John Scheepers, Inc and they have a wonderful array of choices. I’m already thinking about next years order – while they’re blooming is the best time to take those notes, but we won’t place our order until the end of July. We might need more of a few of these…

This weekend we are faced with bit of a dilemma. The tulips are at their fragile peak and a potentially damaging rain is in the forecast. I hate for anyone to miss the tulip show but I have to hope we get a really good soaker. It’s been too long and I would sacrifice the tulips if April showers relieve our drought and bring us extra May flowers. Are you forced to pray for rain too?

… but most spring flowers don’t. It hasn’t yet reached the temperature that was forecast for today (82!) but it’s definitely warmer than most things want to be so early in spring. As much as I hate to have to say it, the daffodils are now officially past their peak. Not to worry though because the tulips have taken over the show. Of course, warm temperatures this week might make some of them a passing  fancy too. But then, that’s what spring is all about. This is definitely the week to take a day off to sit under the cherry trees as they snow, breathe in the heavy scent of winter hazel, listen to the frogs sing, take a photo essay of faded flowers, and celebrate the preciousness of life. Since every day is bloom day from now on, here’s a small sample of passing fancies for a hot and sunny Monday.

To see what else is blooming (and passing by) all over the country and the world, visit May Dreams Gardens.

So many of our favorite groundcovers have their day in the sun, so to speak, in the spring. Particularly the ones that are made for the shade. Before the trees leaf out they get the light they need to really take off. I never noticed before that Mukdenia rossii ‘Karasuba’, which is known more for its bright red and glossy fall foliage, has such pretty flowers. And I think the new foliage is handsomer now than ever.

You might never find where we hid the bergenia (hint: under the grape arbor) but it’s happier tucked away there than anywhere else we’ve tried it. I’m not sure which species this is (Ed, if you read this, please help!) but just look at that flower. Precious princess-pants. After living in Seattle where rough looking bergenia fill every streetside rockery, I never thought I’d think it was that special. But maybe this one is especially special. You get a prize if you can find it. (Finding it is the prize.)

You can’t miss the epimedium. It will fill up your view as you walk through the moongate. It’s amazing to me that such a delicate – and often expensive plant could be so prolific. It’s tough as nails and I say — we all say — the more the merrier. I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t want such a beauty to spread its little wings wherever it could. (It grows so happily in dry shade that it’s as if we got it wrong about such sites being difficult.)

And of course there are the daffodils, groundcover-ers themselves swimming in a sea of periwinkle (Vinca minor). And the question of every day is what is the groundcover with the mottled red leaves? It’s trout lily (Erythronium americanum), one of our native wildflowers. Not many are in bloom yet as I write this but they’re coming. (Although they did have a big show last year and deserve a break.)

Now that spring has really sprung, there is so much to see, it might be impossible to notice it all. (I’ve tried.) The daffodils will continue to be in peak probably through the weekend and now that the tulips and cherry trees have started there’s no longer any reason at all to not visit right this minute.

Do you have a favorite spring groundcover? Or is there one that you like better in spring than any other time of year?