It’s quite possible that the daffodils have never been as beautiful as they’ve been this week. The early daffs are lingering while the late ones open (there are still more to come) and the entire property seems lit from below. And the timing, coinciding with April vacation week, couldn’t have been better. So many people of all ages — hundreds each day — have been able to take the time to enjoy the property, bringing picnics, playing games, lingering on benches, and taking advantage of photo opportunities under the moongate and on the new Norway maple throne next to the bamboo grove. So fun — and totally gratifying for us to see. Although kids will go back to school on Monday, the show here goes on. Tulips should start opening in earnest this weekend and should come into peak themselves just as the daffodils begin to step aside.

The beautiful weather this week, gently warm and sunny, also made our hard work in the gardens hardly feel like work at all. We continued to edit, starting again in the Idea Garden. Some plants like mint family “thugs” (I hesitate to call them that because I love them, but they do spread outwards in a way that earns them a certain reputation) need to be re-corralled every year if we are to enjoy them to their fullest. And when we keep up with them annually, the edits are easy to make. (I know whereof I speak. In my garden procrastination has gotten the best of me — and them.)

Beebalm (in this case, Monarda didyma ‘Jacob Cline’) forms a dense mat, only reaching a few fingers outwards from that, and every year we simply smallerize the mat by digging out the outer edges. Mint (in this case spearmint, Mentha spicata ‘Kentucky Colonel’) sends rhizomes all-whicha-ways that need to be pulled out from amongst neighbors. (It’s easily done because the roots are close to the surface — and it smells delicious.) Mint also makes a dense central mat and I find it easiest to dig that all out and replace only a little of the best bits. Because most gardeners I know keep it in containers instead, we decided to showcase that method too, this year. We are still playing musical perennials, moving shrubs from one bed to another, giant lilies (Lilium ‘Gerrit Zalm’) that were out of scale in the trough garden went to the Rose Garden where they’ll wow with the roses; and we redistributed more oxeye daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare) from the cutting garden to the North Garden. And we have been fine tuning too, weeding out shocking patches of chickweed, onion grass, deadnettle, and rogue clumps of lawn. (More on our Rose Garden corner weed eradication program later — big decisions were made by committee just yesterday.)

And I have been very remiss in not mentioning our new intern, Betsy who has been working with us now a couple of days a week for the last 3 at least. My only excuse is that she fit right in and it feels like she has been at Blithewold for years already. Betsy also works at Schartner Farms in Exeter, RI and interned at Arnold Arboretum, so I think she’ll have a thing or two to teach us (me) too.

Did you spend April vacation in the garden too? Working or playing — or both?

Yesterday working in the Rose Garden one of our diligent volunteer weeders gave us a rare opportunity to check out some flowers that were never meant to be noticed. As the gardens continue to explode with blooms of every color, size and shape, and attract pollinators of every walk, fly, creep and crawl of life, some plants like these violas (which to us are only weeds if they’re in the wrong spot) are working overtime to produce closed, “cleistogamous”, self-pollinating flowers instead. Nature is weird.

Evidently, violas find their springtime pollinators so unreliable that they developed a last ditch survival mechanism: DIY pollination. It’s a terrible method for promoting genetic diversity – species are better off using “chasmogamous” or opening flowers to cross-pollinate – better yet, for a plant to reject its own pollen in favor of that from another – and change with the times. But survival is survival say the violas, the fittest be damned. We couldn’t help dissecting a couple of the flowers to check out the parts inside but would have needed a microscope or at least a loupe to identify anything. The ripening seeds were visible enough. I’ve never witnessed this but when they’re fully ripe and ready to go, they’re ejected like toast from the pod. Nature is cool.

Violas aren’t the only plant with a backup plan. Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) does the same thing – though I couldn’t find any of its cleistogamous flowers. And I got kind of excited thinking that perhaps these pale green pouches (below, right) on the wooly morning glory (Argyreia nervosa) are its flowers because I’ve never seen them open further. But according to Google images, the buds inside eventually do open into chasmogamous flowers that are quite attractive – to my eye and probably to pollinators as well. Learn something new everyday.

Now that the heat of April is behind us, we’re taking full advantage of the coolness and rain of May. The weather is a little backwards but we’ll take what we can get when it comes to planting weather. With a few days of rain in the forecast we were really thrilled to have a dry day today and a good crew to start putting in some of our cool-season annuals. We planted tassel flower (Emilia javanica) in what promises to be a stunning combination with annual campion (Viscaria occulata ‘Blue Angel’). We also planted calendula, Salvia claryssa (a diminutive clary sage), some pretty tough looking bee’s friend (Phacelia tanacetifolia), golden feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium ‘Aureum’), Virginia stock (Malcolmia maritima), ornamental kale ‘Sunset’, and honeywort (Cerinthe major var. purpurescens ‘Kiwi Blue’) among other various and sundry things I’ve already forgotten.

In some places we had to elbow a few volunteers out of the way – volunteer reseeders, that is. You might this this sea of teasel seedlings is horrific but I like to think of them as a really excellent weed barrier. Nothing can penetrate that mat but it was quick work to delete a few to make room for a new little border of clary sage. And with any luck that will seed itself around too.

All of the garden’s newest tenants will be happy to have cloudy skies and plenty of rain (fingers crossed) to help them settle in. And now we have more room under the arbor for “hardening off” the next batch of plants to come out of the greenhouse. Tender perennials like Mexican anise hyssop (Agastache spp.), salvias, porterweed (Stachytarpheta spp.), and geraniums (Pelargonium) are next on the list — although all of those might prefer to wait to go out after the rain has stopped. That’s alright because it’s also time to move out some of our container specimen like the camellias, coprosmas, farfugium, and sweet olive (Osmanthus fragrans). The shift is on.

Have you started to plant cool-season annuals yet?

Evidently some plants didn’t quit growing over the winter. I can understand why most gardeners prefer to corral their herbs in pots. I’m not a huge fan of that trick because they seem to hate captivity. It never takes long for mint to plan its great escape, circling the edge of the pot and walking out – sometimes from underneath – when we’re not looking. I’d rather confine it to a corner and keep an eagle eye on it. Plus that saves me from ever having to water it.

But mint, beebalm, and oregano took advantage of my kindness this winter and did their level best to carpet the herb garden. I don’t blame them. It’s a nice garden with rich soil and if the lavender isn’t going to do well, then they might as well take over, right? If those plants were difficult to edit, we’d have been in deep trouble. But their rhizomes are shallow – only thickly matted where they’ve hit an edge and fairly easy to unzip and extricate right now from amongst other plants.  They certainly don’t mind being chopped to bits.

We staked our claim to the garden we wanted back and our newest Deadheads (Welcome, Pam, Helena, Michael! – and welcome back, April!)  removed all but the best pieces of each plant with cathartic and well-placed spade chops. I’m pretty sure they (and those herbs) will be back for more good garden fun. Do you plant your your mint in the ground or in pots – or in pots in the ground?

The weeds are a little bit ferocious this year too. Yesterday the Rockettes gave it their all to remove onion grass from the Rock Garden. It looks so sweet down there right now. The arabis is blooming away; the epimedium are just getting cute and Pasque flower is a ball of fuzz, nearly ready to pop open. We would like to think we got all of the weeds out of the way of plants that really deserve that space but a few might come back here and there to give us job security.

And in case you’re wondering, the daffodils are still at their best. If you haven’t come yet, what are you waiting for? — The cherry trees? They’re just starting to bloom now. Spring has definitely staked its claim too.

There’s really no need to check the calendar. It suddenly feels like going to the beach and that can only mean one thing. It’s July. I’m inclined to think that July is a state of mind more than a month and might not even have it’s own color. For one thing, ALL of the colors are out now, blazing away despite the heat and the glare. I actually took these shots of rainbow colors in the gardens back on the 1st, when July still thought it was June and the light was just right.

July might be one of the most difficult stages for gardeners weather-wise but at least we can begin to feel like we’re catching up. We’re close to being finished with planting (are you done yet?) just in time to start watering (there’s no appreciable rain in the past or forecast) and maybe deadhead a bit. As I did my turn with the hose in the Display Garden yesterday, I found myself very impressed with our newest perennials. I watered some of them because they were newly planted this April but they all looked at me as if why bother?! They seem to be settled in and already loving the dry conditions. But then in our new pollinators’ bed we did plant with toughness (as well as wasps and hummingbirds)  in mind. Things like anise hyssop, beebalm and penstemon say “bththththtttpptt ” to rain and “bring it on!” to the sun and heat (if not the humidity).

But gardeners need respite from all of that and today, after a short and intense planting session, we found some dapple behind the summerhouse and took the opportunity to tackle some of the weeds there. The Rockettes untangled foamflower, creeping raspberry and bleeding heart from a mass of chickweed, goutweed (Aegopodium) and jewelweed and mulched the whole area with a new layer of shredded leaves. The rainless heat will keep the weeds from growing back tomorrow and that spot, with newly opened (almost finished) paths in and out, is now a lovely shady destination.

I’m not quite sure what happened to June but I realize I’m remiss in some of my updates and will use July to catch you all up. We hope to hear in the next couple of days how Ginkgo Jr. is doing. I have a lot to report about the vegetable garden this year and our partnership with the East Bay Food Pantry. I’ve also been dying to crow about our gratifyingly busy pollinator beds in the Display Garden, and hope to be able to share some more exciting proposals for changes brought up in the master plan process too.

Do you feel like you’ll finally be able catch up in July too? (Or do you just feel like going to the beach?)