It almost looks like we could ride this heat wave straight into fall. The Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) have been dropping bright red tokens since mid-July; the scent of ripe grapes hovers on whatever little breeze we can catch; the autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale) are emerging from the ivy (a good 2 weeks earlier than last year); the dreaded schoolbus yellow is not only present in the gardens (black and brown-eyed Susans have been blooming since mid-July) but is suddenly on our roads too. While part of me is crying uncle! because of this summer’s relentless heat, the other part of me is nowhere near ready to let go. It can’t possibly already be September, can it?

Despite the fact that we’ve actually had an extra long and hot summer season, it still feels to me as if it only just started. In one way, that’s a little bit true. The gardens here – especially the Display Garden – are reaching their peak now. And barring some sort of natural disaster (Earl, step away from the gardens!) or the early frost that I’ve been pessimistically predicting since the daffodils came early, summer will be stunning for quite a while yet.

But first we’ve got to ride the wave. Gail and I are trying to get as much deadheading and weeding done in the gardens as we can first thing in the morning before copious sweat makes the sunglasses slide off our noses (we’ve given the volunteers a reprieve this week). And we’re keeping a weather eye on Hurricane Earl and family. Forecasters keep saying we’re in for it this year but we’ve got all fingers and toes crossed. – If that doesn’t work to fend off a hurricane, I don’t know what will.

Meanwhile, this is the best time for Gail and me to look over the gardens and make our annual assessments. We’ve grown plenty of plants worthy of rave reviews, put together a few winning combinations, and had our share of head-scratcher disappointments. All of which need to be documented (stay tuned). And of course we’re already kicking around ideas for next year’s gardens…

Have you started taking notes about this season (and next) – or have you been keeping track all along? Have you let go of summer?

According to the calendar, we’re a week ahead of last year and even slightly ahead of May’s full moon, but we couldn’t wait another minute to start planting. And according to the temperature – hot! – we’re right on schedule. I do wish our timing didn’t seem to consistently coincide with the very hottest days of late spring… It would be much better for the plants to choose a week of cool, gray days. But it seems that when we turn the corner on night temperatures, we run headlong into the days of summer. We’re working against the clock of full summer heat all of a sudden.

We’re in good shape though because reinforcements have arrived – Cathy (Harvest Maven) is back to help Dick in the vegetable garden and Lilah (Weed Woman) completed her sophomore year at Bard and has joined our crew for another summer! They planted tomatoes in the vegetable garden yesterday and with the volunteers’ help, gave the weeds what-for.There’s room now for another round of vegetable planting.

Yesterday the Tuesday volunteers also planted the big Display Garden bed. For the last 3 years it has been slowly filling with perennials, shrubs and self-sowers but we have deliberately left plenty of blank canvas for painting a new picture every season – something the perennial plant addict in me can’t seem to do at home. This year Gail and I placed 300 annuals and tender perennials that we hope will grow to be a riot of deep colors and bold textures. It already looks night-and-day different from last year’s frothy haze of pale lavenders.

The Rockettes are planting annuals and tender perennials (dahlias!) in the North Garden tulip pockets as I write and, weather permitting, we’ll plant in the Rose Garden tomorrow.

But just because we’re planting this week doesn’t mean that by next week we’ll be finished and can go home. We aim to have everything still waiting in the greenhouse planted by the end of June even then there will be endless tweaking and editing to be done here and there. – The gardens are, in fact, a work in progress from here on out.

Are you planting this week too?

It’s official and I have the pictures to prove it. For the first time since I started this blog, I won’t be repeating myself on bloom day. The usual cast of mid-May characters are blooming now! Which isn’t to say that some won’t still be blooming on the 15th – but by then a whole new group will probably be showing off in front of my camera.

I don’t usually pay much attention to rose buds at this time of year but I might guess from the looks of these, they might not wait until June to open…

It’s interesting to see the exuberance of the heat-triggered bloomers and fully leafed out trees in contrast with the plants that take their cue from day length. The temperature sensitive ones are the gamblers willing to take a chance on frost and the timing of pollinators for the pay off of a possibly longer season. But “late” ones strike me as the smart ones. It’s as if they know something everyone else doesn’t.

We gardeners are left to wonder and speculate about the rest of the season. Do early blooms signify a longer season or will winter come two weeks sooner? (I can’t believe I just said that.) Will we sail through the North Garden’s May gap on June flowers or will there be a lingering bloom delay after the tulips are well and truly done? Should we take our cues from the gamblers and risk planting annuals ahead of our usual schedule or should we play it safe and wait?

We’ll actually do a bit of both here. May’s full moon – our usual cue for getting the annuals in the ground – is as late this year as everything else is early. So we’ll just watch the weather. Because the tulips in the Rose Garden have gone by, we’ll start there. We’ll take them out and in their place plant the cold-hardiest of the annuals/tender perennials first. The North Garden tulips are still looking stunning so we’ll wait one more week at least before taking them out by which time we’ll be right on our usual track in that garden – ready to plant by the last week in May.

I’ve noticed that some garden centers already have a few annuals out for sale. Will you wait or take a chance on planting now?