What a Difference a Year Makes.

4-15-12 VERMONT: There is no snow, no frozen ground and no wet spot in the yard or pasture except the drainage brook. I just checked and last year there was snow until May 1! The road is totally dry, graded and free of ruts and pot holes. Today was in the seventies here, breezy and partly cloudy. The perennials are all in the two inch range. I saw one turtle and crayfish, and the frogs are singing tonight.

I took down the reflectors that guide the plowers, put up the pasture gate, put out some of the benches and chairs, put away the snow removal gear. Tomorrow gardening begins.

In bloom: snow drops, crocus, primrose, forsythia and the mystery flower below—answer in a later post.


Primrose opening up.

ID Quiz: Can you name this one? It's in bloom now, obviously, and is growing pond side. The dead leaves give you an idea of its size.

Routine Gardening

4-14-12 SHORT HILLS: Another California day, cool overnight and seventies during the afternoon, lots of sun, but we really need a good soaker. I spent the day in the yard trimming, pruning, weeding, raking in all up and composting it. I go to VT tomorrow to do the same things there.

New blooms: wood hyacinth.


Snowball Viburnum, pretty, but the aroma is somewhere between glorious and overwhelming.

Back to Pruning.

4-12-12 SHORT HILLS: Shovel got the day off, I worked on the junipers along the street, removing dead branches and some winter damage, and trimming the trees back to the curb. I generated a car load for the dump.

After a trip to Home Depot for plumbing supplies, I repaired most of the sprinkler problems well enough to last until the pros arrive in a few weeks. The weather continues to be very dry, and I started watering yesterday.

The junipers along the driveway are hosting at least one nesting bird, a mourning dove, see her below.

New blooms: Carolina allspice.


Dogwood. Four bracts, not petals, a dicot.

Mourning Dove nesting in junipers.

Daffodil. Six petals, a monocot. Today this one is my favorite.

Perennial Favorites.

4-11-12 SHORT HILLS: The showers predicted for yesterday and today have failed to materialize, and I turned on the sprinklers. Most of them are working OK, but there are a few problems to be fixed.

Otherwise, it was me and Shovel all day. I planted several perennials in the new bed by the holly tree, in the bed by the flagpole, in the beds by the back patio. I added six more Sweet Woodruff [Galium odoratum] to the patio bed under the dining room window, and six Dead Nettle [Lamium maculatum ‘Ghost’ and ‘Pink Pewter’] to the bed under the living room window. In the bed by the holly tree, I added two Jacob’s Ladder [Polemonium ‘Brise d’Anjou’ USPP9781] and a Columbine [Aquilegia ‘Biedermeier’]. I added two more Jacob’s Ladder and another Columbine, same varieties, to the flagpole bed as well as two Bleeding Hearts [Dicentra spectabilis], two Lungwort [Pulmonaria ‘Bertram Anderson’ and ‘Raspberry Splash’], two Bearded Iris [Iris germanica ‘Tempting Fate’], and one Corydalis [Corydalis shimienensis ‘Blackberry Wine’]. All of them, except the Iris, are shade tolerant, a necessity in this yard. We will see what works.

I especially want to thank Shovel for her help. She can really dish the dirt.

New blooms: apple tree.

New Kwanzan.

4-10-12 SHORT HILLS: We came back to NJ on the red-eye Sunday night and spent yesterday recovering. Yesterday was very dry and very windy, causing several brush fires to pop up. We had a new shower of branches to clean up today. Things are very dry here, we need a lot of rain.

This morning I moved all the tomatoes to roomier quarters and then dug up the dead cherry tree, the bark stripped off by a buck honing his antlers. I filled the hole with a new Kwanzan Cherry [Prunus serrulata ‘Kwanzan’]. While I was at the nursery, I got some perennials to plant tomorrow. I’ll list them all after they’re in the ground.

I have more San José pix below. We did get to the double-header and were impressed with the pitcher in the second game and the catcher in the first one.

New blooms: mertensia, yellow lamium, pink lamium, red bud, white daffodils, Kwanzan cherry tree, snowball viburnum.


This rose and the one below are from the Rose Garden in San José.


A very big Southern Magnolia.

Fast ball for a strike.

Battery mate, but on a different team.

Cali-flor-nia Trip.

4-6-12 SAN JOSÉ: We came west for a visit to the left coasters. The boys have grown even since we last saw them. Little League is in full swing [NPI], and there’s a game or two on our schedule. The weather is the same as we left in NJ, sixties in the afternoon and forties at night, but the gardens are in full riot mode.

There are magnolias and iris and wisteria, and lots of semi-tropicals in bloom, as well as roses, poppies and citrus fruit on the trees. I am always overwhelmed by the variety, wealth and number of flowering species. The profusion makes our NJ and VT garden palettes seem so limited. NJ house plants grow wild outdoors here. I feel as if I should go back to NJ and release them from captivity.


Frosted Rose.

Wisteria-compare these with the stained glass ones in my last post from L C Tiffany.

California Profusion.

A Day at the Museum.

4-3-12 SHORT HILLS: We did get rain on Saturday and more on Sunday night, but less than a half inch total. Saturday we went to the Met Museum to catch up on the recent exhibits. We saw the Stein collection, the Lehman collection, the Degas-Rembrandt portraits, the nude photos and the re-modeled American Wing. We spent the most time in the American Wing which didn’t seem that different to me. It has great furniture and clocks, and we love the period rooms.

It has continued to be warmer than normal, and I have been working in shirt sleeves doing lots of routine stuff. I have pruned, moved some volunteers, hauled cuttings to the dump, brought back compost from the dump for filling holes and planting. Today I cut back overgrown yews in the pool area and started watering my recent plantings because we are getting dry.

New blooms: barberry, dandelion.


St. Gaudens Diana was atop a previous version of Madison Square Garden.

Wisteria, stained glass window, by LCT.

On the way out we were nearly trampled by the knights in Arms and Armor.