Bird Nests.

5-3-20 SHORT HILLS: We had yet another trace of rain last night. The past two days have been summery—warm, breezy, mostly sunny, shirt-sleeve days. I think the spring gardening is mostly done although whenever I walk around the yard I see something I missed. We’re waiting for the lawn mowers to show up, the grass is ankle high.

While pruning Asian hollies that border the den terrace, I noticed two, two bird nests. One of them was low enough for me to look into and the other just a bit too high. The construction and size of both nests were very similar, same material, and I assumed that they were the same species.

Yesterday the lower nest had two speckled eggs that are those of a cardinal, who I saw on the bush next to the nest. The other nest is so well hidden that I couldn’t get a look into it even holding the camera high above my head. However, I later chased the momma bird out, inadvertently, by walking by the nest, and it was a robin.

New blooms: Korean spice viburnum, wood hyacinth.

Next to the den terrace is this cardinal nest in an Asian holly. There's a robin nest on the other side of the terrace in a different holly tree.

Wood hyacinth is a reliable, shade tolerant spring perennial.

Korean spice viburnum is our second of about eight viburnums to bloom, but doesn't make seeds or self-spread to my disappointment.

Redbud plays it close to the trunk, each of those pink ovoids opens to resemble a tiny orchid.

May!

5-1-20 SHORT HILLS: May may be the best month here in NJ, warm but not hot, rain but no snow, sun but no drought, flowers but no weeds, bees but no mosquitoes—June, July, August are too hot, humid, dry, buggy, weedy, and we hide inside in the AC. Time to go to VT where there will still be a little snow in corners and spring is just getting started.

Anyway, we had another 0.8 inches of rain, but today is sunny and warm. We opened the back door, and all the house plants dashed outside and assembled on the terrace under the sweet gum tree. Usually they don’t dare going outside before May 15-20.

We are soon going to VT, and I am always anxious to get there and be there, but ambivalent about leaving here during flower season when dozens of plants are yet to bloom.

The screens are up, the pruning almost finished, leaves opening on the trees. By the end of May, this yard will have gone from sunny to shady when all the ash trees are in business.

New blooms: acuba, clematis, redbud, honeysuckle.

No more insignificant, little flowers on the ground, but azaleas have started to bloom.

Judy's house plants have gone on summer vaca. Before this year, they never put so much as a frondlet  out the door until May 15.

Redbuds add to the pink wave.

Acuba japonica, spotted laurel, has a distinctive, yellow spotted leaf and insignificant flowers.

Clematis.

Slowly Approaching Summer.

4-29-20 SHORT HILLS: We’ve had another 0.5 inches of rain, but yesterday was warm and sunny. The fence workers were here two days ago, and they replaced about a dozen and half rotted posts and about as many rails. As often happens when work is done on the periphery of the yard, the invisible canine fence got damaged [we have both wooden and electric fences to keep the dogs contained]. I found one break in the wire and repaired it, but the broken-wire alarm didn’t stop, so I called the company to find and repair the other problem[s].

One might well ask why any dog would ever consider running away from this extremely dog-friendly situation, but, after all, they’re dogs.

I’m still out there snipping and grooming shrubs and trees, and finding more to do even in the areas that I thought were done. Our first lawn mowing will get done next week, the official start of summer, that and the first G & T.

New blooms: azalea.

Blueberry flowers are another inverted white bell, which must be a successful flower design for some pollinator to crawl in or, perhaps, protect the early developing fruit/seed from rain or wind. Lily-of-the-valley, andromeda, leucothoe have a similar format.

From a different blueberry bush, these have a more globular shape.

Here's a better pic of the warty barberry that shows the impressive thorns.

Wild strawberry opened a few days ago. This plant has widely spread throughout our lawn and makes lots of yellow flowers [white ones in VT] and later little, red fruit with very little taste. A lot of our 'freedom lawn' is what some people consider weeds. My lawn philosophy is anything that doesn't mind being three inches tall is welcome, dandelions included.

More Rain.

4-26-20 SHORT HILLS: Yesterday was May, warm and mostly sunny. People were out on the street, walking, running, biking and generally masked and social distancing. Some people were carrying water bottles, but no one I saw was using bleach as a beverage.

Note to President Trump—please show how to properly drink Clorox or Drano during one of your pressers. Dr. Birx has certainly turned out to be a suck-up, which makes anything she says suspicious and unreliable.

I was outside yesterday doing more shrub and tree maintenance. Among the things I do is removal of dead canes or stalks from the shrubs to make room for new growth in the center of the plant. Another chore is to protect a prized shrub such as an azalea from being over shadowed by an aggressive neighbor like a burning bush. Now I like burning bushes, they have beautiful growth habit, are mostly trouble free, have brilliant fall color and berries eaten by birds, but the azaleas, roses and others need some help from getting over crowded.

There was another 0.8 inches of rain in the gauge yesterday, and it’s raining and cold again now, so we’re back in March. Lots of spots in the yard are mud soup.

New blooms: blueberry.

Two trees both with white flowers, can you ID them?

Dogwood is behind the...

Apple. On the back right, the magnolia has finished flowering and is making leaves.

Another barberry, this is 'warty barberry', a taller plant with bigger, shinier evergreen leaves, long thorns and yellow flowers, in contrast with the common barberry shrub.

Kwansan cherry tree filling out with pink.

April Chill Continues.

4-23-20 SHORT HILLS: We have had more rain, showers almost every day, 0.4 inches since the last post. It’s been close to freezing overnight, but warms up to the forties, so I have been outside clipping and sawing. The cold weather seems to have slowed the new flowering, as the plants probably have second thoughts about opening up when the pollinators are nearly frozen.

There were a few flakes when the rain started this morning, but it was all over in about an hour. This weather pattern is supposed to change next week.

I have been selling the birds a lot of seeds, but there have not been any unusual customers. The cardinals, the males, are more vibrant red than a week or so ago. I never noticed color change in the cardinals before—I guess they could be different birds.

New blooms: Virginia blue bells, sweet woodruff, wild strawberry.

Virginia blue bells, yet another spring ephemeral.

Judy reading Duckling to Maizie. A daily pic is going to Jo-Ann for the remote, on-line classes at Lincoln Elementary School.

Sweet woodruff flowers in spring, but the foliage lasts all season.

Sixty and Sunny.

4-19-20 SHORT HILLS: Did I mention that we have had 2.5 inches of rain this week? Apparently not, but today things are drying out and warming up. There was an RWB at the feeders today, first one this year.

Everything in the yard seems to have survived the winter except the crape myrtles, but they’re always the last ones to open buds, so we keep waiting.

New blooms: Chinese snowball viburnum.

Kwanzan cherry, enough pink for everyone.

Purple lamium is filled with flowers this year.

Chinese snowball viburnum, the first viburnum and the best aroma, but it doesn't make seeds.

Bleeding Hearts are reliable perennials in NJ, but invasive in VT, but in a nice way.

Frost is Back.

4-17-20 SHORT HILLS: Capricious April has turned on us. Last night and tonight were and will be in the twenties. New tender shoots were frozen. Today warmed up to the forties and was sunny, so I was outside working while it got colder, darker and windier, and now rainy. I did get more trimming/pruning done in the border in back of the house.

The cold wave has frozen the spring flower parade, but after tomorrow, it is forecast to get warmer.

New blooms: dogwood, Kwansan cherry, ajuga.

Ajuga has a purple/green leaf and a purple flower in the spring.

It is an excellent ground cover, growing between bricks and blocks. I had an area that it took over, and I dug some up and planted them in blank spots with a high success rate. I took a bunch to VT last summer and am anxious to see how much survived the winter.