Spring blooms are not queuing up in any kind of orderly succession – they’re storming the gates, pushing and shoving and all shouting at once. The tulips are not waiting their turn for the daffodils or even the scilla to go by. Not only are the color clashes truly alarming but we’re left to wonder what will happen in May. Will The May Gap be deeper than ever or will May really be June instead? And then what happens to July? At this point it’s all conjecture with a few hopes and fears thrown in, and there’s absolutely nothing we gardeners can do but enjoy the abundance – and take way too many pictures. If the lilacs bloom out before Mother’s Day, so be it. Maybe Mom will have roses instead… As for the daffodils, they are still gorgeous. The ‘Ice Follies’ are fading but late bloomers like ‘Thalia’ and ‘Mrs. Backhouse’ are set to open right up.

This could be a bloom day post 3 days early but I think much more will be revealed in the next few days. As a matter of fact, here’s a foreshadowing:

Anyone care to place bets on when the Mayflower viburnum a.k.a. Korean spice bush a.k.a. Viburnum carlesii will bloom? How about the crabapple? Are your May flowers looking like they might bloom in April too?

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…

The landscape is changing before our very eyes. Plants have taken advantage of the recent heatwavelet to push out leaves, flowers and seeds like it’s their job and they’re putting in for overtime. I’m astonished to look up and see nearly fully clothed trees – I thought I had been paying attention but it’s happening so quickly now. I’ve been told that it’s every New Englander’s birthright to complain about the weather and we are given special dispensation to whine about the brevity of spring. I have to admit that even though I like to think I have a Pollyanna-ish appreciation for all kinds of weather and a keen eye out for spring, I’ve been whining a little louder this year too. Wouldn’t we all like the tulips to hold on, the cherry trees and magnolias to keep blooming, and the trees to stay nearly naked in their feather soft lingerie a little longer? – Or is it just me?

Like the trees, we’ve taken advantage of the sun and warm temperatures too and are keeping ahead of schedule. Gail’s new mantra is “we’ll plant something everyday and it will all get done.” We’ve got another 8 weeks or so of planting ahead of us and if we keep up our industrious pace, we’ll be done in … I would guess … maybe 7 weeks. On Tuesday the Deadheads planted the sweet peas right on schedule – they graciously allowed me to take my annual chorus-line shot of them. And Wednesday the Rockettes tackled planting lettuce, cabbages, Swiss chard, beets, pansies, orlaya and calendula in the Display Garden bed that we have designated The Potager.  Gail and I wrestled the crowning agave into the (almost) exact center of the ellipse and are crossing our fingers that we won’t have a frost. The weeds, of course, are putting in overtime too and the Florabundas had their work cut out for them yesterday in the Rose Garden. (Gail and I planted peonies. – Plant something every day!)

Now that the weather has turned gray and rainy, we’ll complain a bit about that too. But everything recently planted will take the opportunity to get straight to work.

What is working overtime right now in your garden? – Are you?