Vacation week is perfectly timed this year or else it’s the daffs that are right on time. No matter if you think that spring is early or late this year, it’s surely happening now. And it’s Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (hosted by gracious Carol of May Dreams Gardens)! It’s all blooms all the time from now until Christmas and here’s a little taste of what’s open: First and foremost, the Daffodils. Probably 60% are open — I think all of the ‘Ice Follies’ are showing and we think, depending entirely on the weather, we should be at 98% (that’s peak!) by early next week. And the show will go on barring tempests, freezes or scorchers — then, of course all bets are off. So come when you can! You’ll also see these other things blooming today if you’re on the lookout:

Sharp leaved hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba) in the Rock Garden,

Lungwort (Pulmonaria augustifolia azurea) camouflaged with the Scilla also in the Rock Garden,

Another Lungwort (Pulmonaria sacchorata ‘Mrs. Moon’) in the Rock Garden,

Narcissus ‘Ice Follies’ in the Water Garden,

Dawn viburnum (Viburnum x bodnantense) on the path between the Bosquet and the Water Garden,

And check out the Katsuras (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) blooming!

I almost hesitate to show the weeping katsura blooms up close (they’re a little pornagraphic don’t you think? – Maybe sensual is a better word. I’m having a Georgia O’Keefe moment…)

And did you notice? – There are some new decorations on the left hand side bar. The first one is Blotanical and if you don’t already know about this terrific site, take a look. It’s all garden blogs – and blooms – all the time from all over the world and placed so handily at your very fingertips. You can search by location and see if any of your neighbors have opened their gardens to the public. The site was developed by a genius Aussie named Stuart who you might have met in our comments box from time to time . (Maybe one of these days he’ll visit us in the flesh! I think he should make a point of visiting all of us garden bloggers…)

And we’ve also decided to join the commercial world and have made room for an Amazon ad. Our hope is that anytime you need, want, desire something from Amazon.com, you’ll stop by the blog first (and don’t we all order from Amazon occasionally? – it’s just so conveeeenient). By clicking on our link and following through with a purchase, Amazon will send us a commission. It’s one of the very easiest ways to make a donation. Of course if you’d like to make an actual tax deductible donation please click here! I will try to keep the Amazon ad interesting by posting our favorite books – which just happen to be available for purchase!

Happy Bloom Day everyone (and happy shopping!)

Spring is happening so quickly with this warm weather spell! Everywhere I look here there are things waking up with a stretch saying “mmm… what’s for breakfast?!”. The Magnolia stellata (Star magnolia) is rising with the sun from the top down. The water garden ferns are uncurling (exept for this fuzzy little guy is still tightly tucked) and early bird Hepatica has been up for hours already.

The volunteers have been busy so far this week – Tuesday’s Deadheads weeded the entire Display area and planted the Sweet peas! Sweet peas are the first seeds we sow in the greenhouse and the first annuals we plant in the garden because they thrive in the cool weather.

Today the Rockettes weeded the Rock Garden and uncovered some washed out paths and this afternoon, Gail and I took advantage of the afternoon’s cloud cover to start the North Garden relocation project. (As I wrote that I flashed on an image of jacking up the garden and trailering it to a new spot. We’re not doing that – it’s good where it is!) We were inspired by Fergus Garrett, the late Christopher Lloyd’s head gardener at Great Dixter, to reorganize the plants we already have to take better advantage of their best attributes. I’ll talk more about this as we get more organized! Early spring is a great time to move or divide perennials because they’re easy to handle before they’ve grown too much and as long as you keep them watered like you would a new plant, they’ll settle in before the heat of summer. It’s also best to move plants on a cool cloudy day with rain in the forecast – today was perfect!