Mother Nature has been playing with us these past weeks, but no matter how she laughs as she keeps us off balance spring is coming. Crocuses, daffodils and sky blue scillas are laughing right back. Forsythia bushes are sunbursts of blossom. Even some small trees are beginning to bloom. My neighbor Paul has a golden witch hazel in his garden. Hamamelis vernalis blooms early in the spring and is noted for that early bloom and twirly petaled flowers.…
Shoots are up, plants are leafing out. It is time to start keeping the Monday Record. The only bloom in the garden are these Van Sion daffodils that are growing against a stone wall - in back of the Buckland Rose. I thought I had dug out all the bulbs before I planted the rose here, but I was wrong. I wrote about how I identified this daffodil here. One reader said these were the ugliest daff he…
My walk across the sunny Smith College Campus yesterday was a golden spring garden. For more Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.
When I asked readers to tell me about some of the plants they absolutely had to have in the garden, I got a variety of answers. Linda Tyler said she had to have coral bells, heucheras, in her garden because there is such variety in the foliage color and size. Tyler did not specify which varieties she has in her garden, but a quick look through the garden catalogs like Plant Delights Nursery shows photos of Tiramisu with…
Snow and ice are slowly melting on our Heath hill, but we are intermittently being teased by 50 degree temperatures. Will we really have an early spring this year? Will the ancient forsythia bushes at the edge of my lawn really bloom properly this year? The forsythia bushes were here when we moved at the beginning of the bitter winter of 1979. Spring did not arrive promptly and we watched the forsythia put on a half hearted show…
Gardens are planned, grow and develop over time as dependably as any single plant. Ray and Melanie Poudrier’s garden could be said to have begun when Ray’s father bought land in Hawley in 1942. Ray’s father joined his mother and their brood of thirteen children on Hawley summer weekends to see the latest developments. The family grew a vegetable garden, had an orchard and a blueberry patch. They even rented a cow for the summer to have milk…
The days are growing shorter. When I drive down my road I have begun averting my eyes from a maple branch that has burst into flame. Autumn is officially upon us. And yet there is a lot of bloom in my garden. One of the benefits of annuals is that many will bloom well into the fall. I have pots of snapdragons, petunias, osteospurnum and ‘Million Bells,’ a healthy blooming border of an annual salvia around the Shed…
People are always asking me what is blooming on the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls. It changes every day but here are some current views. These azaleas are as sunny as our June days. The tornadoes that went through Springfield and beyond on Wednesday didn't do any damage up our way. Azaleas have their own season, but the annual osteospernums will bloom all summer long. That is what makes annuals so valuable in any planting. Blue is…
June is the most important month in my garden, especially this year. The last Sunday in June is traditionally The Annual Rose Viewing, my version of Garden Open Today. I send out an open invitation to anyone who wants to stop and smell the roses, visit with friends and have a glass of lemonade and some cookies in the comfort of the Cottage Ornee. This year is different. This year our garden is part of the Franklin…
The Holiday Weekend started for me on Friday afternoon when I visited the Heath School's Garden Day. The classes have been working before now, of course, but on Garden Day, the whole day is given over to planting, weeding, mulching - and learning. I am impressed with their energy, which I expected, but also with the quality of the child-sized tools they are using. Many hands make light work was certainly the motto on Friday. You may wonder…