Last but never least, are the little things I love. You know I am all for outstanding plants – I always have to grow a few big ones that grab attention and don’t let it go for a minute. Fuller’s teasel, castor beans, and my very favorite 6 footer, Gomphocarpus physocarpus ‘Oscar’ (aka hairy balls) should be high on my list because they simply can’t be overlooked.

But flower-an-hour (Hibiscus trionum) can. I know I’ve mentioned it already this year (last year) but I still can’t believe I let this one pass under my radar for so long. This past summer I discovered a love for the way it weaves itself into the August garden here and there and pops open its flowers as if it doesn’t matter who sees how delicate their creamy white flowers are, and how deep their purple throat. But even if I might miss them, the bees never do.

I’m not usually that into purple flowers (or white ones for that matter) but my other diminutive favorite was Cuphea ‘Ballistic’. The ears! We’ve grown C. ‘David Verity’ from cuttings for years and can’t live without it; and we’re becoming just as addicted to ‘Carribean Sunset’ and Mexican giant cigar plant (C. micropetala) – so smitten with that one in fact that despite it nearly breaking our backs we brought our largest specimen back into the greenhouse. But honestly, it’s little ‘Ballistic’ that just gets me. Typical of cuphea, once it starts blooming it never stops and never needs deadheading either.

And what about the plants that would just as soon be walked on as noticed? Gail and I are both consumed with the notion of lawn alternatives and hoping to replace our own sorry looking lawns with anything that won’t waste endless resources – and doesn’t need weekly mowing. My kingdom for a carpet of chamomile underfoot…

Meanwhile, as I look back and we begin to cast forward to next season’s gardens, the eyelash begonias are beginning to bloom, and the maidenhair ferns are sprouting. I simply can’t help focusing on the littlest things.

What little things are you in love with?

While the weather is still so mild and the nights still so warm, it feels decidedly premature to bring plants back into the greenhouse. I’d much rather keep enjoying all the color out in the garden. (So much color!) But the time is absolutely right. It’s much easier on the plants if they come in with enough time to acclimatize before we close the vents and turn the heat back on. – That’s particularly important for houseplants and advice I really should be following at home, come to think of it…

Over the last few days we have brought cart load after heavy-back-breaking cartload of container plants back inside along with dozens of tender perennial stock plants. We’ve pushed aside the office supplies and made a colossal mess of the potting shed – it’s always gratifying to use this room (where I sit as I type surrounded by muddy tracks of potting soil) for its primary purpose – and it’s been amazing to watch the greenhouse transform from an airy bare-bones space back into a garden. (Click on pictures for larger view.)

Our one consolation for losing the plants in the (outside) garden is that they all look just as beautiful inside. Actually, there’s something about bringing plants indoors that makes them seem extra precious and lovely somehow. So lovely in fact that we decided the greenhouse is too nice not to linger in. We hope we will still have room for the livingroom ensemble after our collection of phormiums comes inside…

Have you started bringing the garden back inside?

We really needed the rain. Not only were the gardens dry – which is hard to believe since it’s been so not-sunny lately – but rain also gives us a chance to get to things that usually get short shrifted in May. Like tending to houseplants – or in our case the greenhouse plants. At home I all but forget to water my houseplants in spring let alone get them cleaned up, repotted and or fertilized before putting them outside for the season. And it shows. Here too: the greenhouse plants inevitably start to look a little peaky and neglected right before we want to put them on proud display outside.

So this week, while I tied myself to a desk to catch up on other stuff, Gail, Tara and a few of the volunteers grabbed the chance to give the greenhouse plants some necessary TLC. In between squalls, they even moved a few outside. Moving out during a cloudy week is perfect for giving those plants a chance to acclimate to the sky. Never be tempted, as I sometimes am, to put even sun-loving houseplants in full sun outside right away. Give them some days of shade first. (That said, the sun finally blazed right when I went out with my camera. – At least these plants have been under full greenhouse sun and won’t be so stunned.) If you haven’t already put out the plants that can take it on the cool side like phormium, camellia, gardenia, and rosemary, it’s perfectly safe for them now (it is here anyway.) And looking ahead at our forecast, it might be safe now to start moving the warmer-blooded out too. Most (tropical) houseplants prefer nights to be above 55° or even 6o° F. (I plan on kicking most mine out of the house starting this weekend, come what may. I’m pretty sure at this point we’ll all be happier outdoors.)

Have you had a chance to catch up on inside work too? Have you moved any house or greenhouse plants out yet?