My report for the first of the month and the first of the week, is a day late – but recovering from the pleasures of the Annual Rose Viewing is my excuse. My first of the month reports are to help me keep a better record of bloom times throughout the whole garden. Most of the perennials are in the North and South Lawn Beds.

These two slightly curved Lawn Beds were born 14 years ago. Their purpose was to break up the enormous and boring expanse of lawn . It began with some large flat stones (left over from the Barn Fire in 1990) to help fill the large expanses, and gingko trees planted for our grandsons, then between the ages of 1 and 3. The boys didn’t actually help plant the trees, but they sat in the holes for a bit to establish ownership.  The gingkos are a reminder of our two years in Beijing.

I planted low junipers that quickly filled a lot of space and now need serious control. It is hard to know how much space some plants will take up when you plant them. A case in point is the weeping birch that is planted on the west side of the South Lawn Bed, and the beautiful Mothlight hydrangea which is planted on the east side. They are essentially opposite each other. Not planned. The Mothlight had an airy three or four whippy branches when we planted it and the weeping birch was about a foot tall and already bending in one direction. Unfortunately, I turned that ‘bend in towards the center of the bend right into the hydrangea.  And I didn’t understand that the hydrangea would one day become a mammoth shrub all on its own without any particular care or fertilizing from me.  The weeping birch finally tops the hydrangea, and I have kept the hydrangea’s ‘back’ well pruned.

Mot’h Light is just beginning to bloom, but only the tiniest buds are visible on the other hydrangeas by the road, oakleaf, ‘Limelight’ and Pinky Winky.’

Achilleas are just starting to bloom throughout the garden. ‘Paprika’ is the first. The Lawn beds will look very different in two weeks, but for now the May Night is finishing up, the cosmos are just about tall enough to see and dianthus and The Fairy rose are each sporting about three blossoms.

Of course, there are roses. The Buckland rose will stand in for all of them, and for the friendship that so many roses have brought me.

The first daylilies have begun to bloom on the Daylily Bank. This is the main floral point of interest in the summer garden.

With all the rain the peonies are nearly done, but I rescued these few and put a bouquet in the Cottage Ornee where the cat won’t know them over and where we will enjoy them with guests tomorrow. The first of the month has come and gone. By Garden Bloggers Bloom Day on the fifteenth of the month there will be very different view.