Word from our Visitor’s Center is that visitation drops off in May. I can’t imagine why. We might not be promoting daffodils anymore but there is still so much going on here. More and more every day. This week, after the Wednesday volunteer group (The Rockettes) planted the sweet peas along the cutting garden fence, a few of us went down to the Rock Garden. I think it’s safe to say that it has never looked sweeter or more filled in and colorful. And there really wasn’t much for us to do but marvel at its display. I’d hate for anyone to not see it just as it is right now. Pictures don’t do it justice but since the internet prevents me from grabbing you all by the hand to pull you down there, they’ll have to suffice. And if you possibly can carve some time out of your weekend (Sunday is forecast to be the better day) by all means, come see it for yourself. And take a walk by the dove tree on your way. And as you leave, say hey to all the tiny tadpoles keeping warm on the pond rocks.

The Rock Garden highlights for me are an Erigeron glaucus ‘Sea Breeze’ (second picture from the bottom) that has been steadily increasing since we planted it a couple of years ago but I don’t ever remember it blooming before. So pretty! And good old tiarella. Where has this plant (Tiarella ‘Elizabeth Oliver’) been all my life? Suddenly I’m totally in love. We planted these as plugs, also a couple of years ago, and they are really taking off now, each one as pretty as a picture.

What’s going on in your spring tapestry?

Along with everyone else along the Eastern Seaboard, we’re battening down the hatches and doing whatever we can to prepare for what looks to be a sizable storm. Some of us (that’s me) can’t help but remember last year’s hurricane-that-wasn’t: Good old Earl passed us right by and it’s tempting to think that maybe forecasters are crying wolf again with this one. But then there are others of us (not me) who were here for Hurricane Bob, 20 years ago last week. During that storm, Blithewold lost about 40 trees and another 40 plus died soon after. So we’re all (me too) watching this storm closely; doing what we can to prepare, and taking it very seriously.

Gail, Tara and I moved our most fragile container plants along with any that might act like sails or projectiles back into the greenhouse yesterday. And then Gail and I spent part of today moving a few more inside, tipping others on their side, and memorizing the gardens and taking pictures. It is a beautiful day – the calm before the storm…

The Rock Garden is the most vulnerable garden on the property because it’s so close to the Narragansett Bay shore. The storm surge is expected to be a big one and as it will be coupled with a high moon tide, that garden will likely be submerged sometime Sunday. And the North Garden is so exposed at the top of the Great Lawn that it’s the most likely to be wind damaged. We re-staked all of the dahlias and have to hope for the best. In the display garden, which is fairly protected by the bamboo grove and hedgerow of trees along the property line, we re-staked the dahlias and decided to allow the burnet (Sanguisorba tenuifolia) to flop onto crutches (a crisscross of bamboo stakes to protect other plants) so that they maybe won’t get wind-whipped. And Dick, Gail and Tree (Blithewold’s director of communications) went through and picked every ripe and almost ripe tomato from the vegetable garden.

Fred and Dan removed the shade sails from the arbor, some garden ornaments, and all of the outdoor furniture. Blithewold’s curator, Margaret has been securing the mansion’s archives – moving everything away from windows and covering furniture and artifacts with plastic. We’ll be closed for visitation for the whole weekend; tours have been cancelled and the tent will be taken down. The only thing left to do is wait – and watch.

Are you glued to the forecast too? What are you doing to prepare your garden and home for the storm?

I think it might be safe to say that we’ve been even busier than bees in the last couple of days. And by “we” I mostly mean the garden volunteers. Gail, Tara and I placed … must be hundreds! of annuals and tender perennials in the Cutting Garden; a few more in the big Display Garden bed; over a hundred in the North Garden; a baker’s dozen in the Rock Garden; and Dick and Cathy placed dozens of tomatoes in the vegetable bed. And almost faster than we (by “we” I mean Gail, Tara and I) could say “please”, they were planted, fertilized (we use Espoma Bulb-Tone, which is a slow-release granular organic fertilizer with a ratio heavy on phosphorus) and watered.

Even though we (Gail, Tara and I) have been working hard to stay one step ahead of the volunteers – I couldn’t even catch a moment to take pictures as they took the tulips out last week – I’ve found that it’s actually absolutely imperative to pause now and again to take in the changes. The other day I almost couldn’t help but stop for Virginia waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum) blooming in the Bosquet: evidently they have never bloomed so abundantly because neither Gail nor I had felt the need to learn its name before. I also don’t ever remember detouring to take in the stunning contrast of flower-like samaras are on the full-moon Japanese maple (Acer shirasawanum ‘Aureum’). And even if we hadn’t had to get to the Rose Garden to place more plants (another 100 plus for tomorrow’s crew) I would have made a special trip to see the Chestnut rose (Rosa roxburghii) and my all-time favorite weird peony (Paeonia ‘Alley Cat’) in full bloom. (Click on pictures for a better view.)

Are you in a planting frenzy in your garden too? And taking time out too, to take it all in?