New Shrubs.

4-29-12 SHORT HILLS: It continues to be sunny, windy and warm in the afternoon, but cold overnight. Again, we need rain, the sprinklers are back on.

I planted nine new shrubs just to the east of the bald cypress tree along the path. First I did a group of three tutsans, Hypericum androsaemum 'Albury Purple', mostly to be a mound of green-purple foliage. Then two blueberries, Vaccinium corymbosum ‘Blue Jay’ and ‘Duke’, an Exbury azalea, ‘Gibraltar’, with red-orange flowers. I hope they will be a tall center to the plantings. Lastly, three Weigela, two ‘Rumba’, and one ‘Wine and Roses’ to be another, taller mound. I’ll get a few more shrubs for the other side of the cypress, perhaps spireas.

That was yesterday, today I dug up lamium that I had planted in a dark spot under trees that became a sunny spot when the two spruces came down winter before last. Now grass grows there. I found a home for the lamium, some with the new shrubs and some in the upper Westview corner by the kerria and red-twig dogwood. After all that I did a lot of watering.

Judy's fern turned 40 last year. She likes a sunny window and summer outside.

Chestnuts in Bloom.

4-27-12 SHORT HILLS: It has been sunny, quite windy and cool.

We have a magnificent red oak in our yard that we have been admiring for forty years. The last ten years or so, it has been losing branches, bigger and bigger ones. This year only two lower branches have good foliage, and we are afraid that it will soon be time to take down the remains of the tree. It has a burl-type of growth that has been slowly encircling the base of the tree and probably killing it.

I planted a red horsechestnut, Aesculus x carnea Briotii, in its shadow today. It is a nice seven-footer and will be a fine replacement someday. I also bought a bunch of small shrubs to fill an area on the south side of the house where the grass never grows. I’ll list them as they get planted.

New blooms: Solomons seal.

Tomato Update: Sun Gold Tomato, now about a foot tall. They all look leggy and need outside, full sun, but it's too cold and too windy. Just about one month until they go into the ground.

Macbeth in Washington Square.

4-26-12 SHORT HILLS: Last night we saw “Macbeth” done by the Aquila Theatre Company at their new location in Washington Square. They do a wonderful job with Shakespeare. Sets, props, costuming are minimal—the words do it alone. Delivered by professionals, the Elizabethan lines come alive. The setting is intimate. We both loved it. See it and support it.

Meanwhile, back in the yard, I planted a Japanese snowbell, Styrax japonicus, near the back fence behind the pool. It’s a full, bushy tree with white, spring flowers that tolerates partial sun.

New blooms: May apple.

Dogwwood is still in bloom.

Blueberry has a distinctive barrel shaped flower.

Rain.

4-24-12 SHORT HILLS: The weather is different now, it’s cold and wet. We got a total of 2.6 inches of needed rain over the weekend. Today is in the fifties after the thirties during the night. Seasonal conditions, I guess, but it seems cold after summer in March.

 I haven’t done much outside since I’ve been back because of the rain, but I will probably get to the nursery tomorrow.

 BTW, that unknown that I showed last week is a Giant Butterbur. Congrats to the none of you who knew it.

 New blooms: honeysuckle bush.

Carolina Allspice, smells as interesting as it looks.

Azaleas Are Early

4-21-12 SHORT HILLS: I got back from VT yesterday to find myself mysteriously enjoying mid-June. The azaleas belong to May but are almost completely open now. The trees are leafing out, even the ashes, usually the last tree to open.

 Wilpat was here today to do some repairs on the sprinkler system, but some more work will be needed. I did a bit of pruning. The lawn almost looks respectable. 

New blooms: azalea, burning bush, gill-over-the-ground, grass, leucothoe, deutzia, viburnums, [red bud, apple, lamium—might have been mentioned before], blue berry, sweet woodruff, ajuga.

Azalea. Neon bright colors, a Hallmark of spring, usually in mid May...

Singly or Paired or....

Best in massed display.

Veggie Prep.

4-19-12 VERMONT: Two more dry and sunny days. We do need rain. Yesterday and this morning I did the prep of the veggie beds. I took the black plastic mulch and the soaker hoses off the beds, added soil to fill holes after weeding and removing all the old corn and tomato stumps.

Janet had left us a big pile of llama poop last fall, enough to cover the beds to about one or two inches—a much appreciated blessing. After a final raking and grading, I replaced the the soakers and then the mulching, reversing the positions of the corn and tomatoes. After stapling the plastic mulch in place, I replaced the fencing and electric wires. We’re ready for corn seeds and tomato plants in May.

This afternoon I moved some daylilies from beds where they were becoming intrusive to the beds behind the pond to join the others already there. A little weeding and pruning and it’s a full day. NJ tomorrow.

New blooms: star magnolia, gill-over-the-ground.


First daffodil here, weeks after the first in NJ.

A bunch of fresh frog eggs and three bullfrog tadpoles. These big tadpoles can take up to three years to mature into adults. Do you think these three are baby sitting or eating?

Frost Warning Tonight.

4-17-12 VERMONT: It was windy and not as hot today, I needed a jacket in the afternoon. Tonight is supposed to be in the thirties—keeps you guessing.

I finished fertilizing, pruned the roses and blueberries, fertilized the big hemlock in the pasture with those spikes that you hammer into the ground. Tomorrow I tackle the veggie beds.

New blooms: pachysandra, daffodil.


Blood Root. This one looks different than the last one I posted because it's a double.

Hepatica, another woodland wild flower.