Early Bloomimg.

4-30-19 SHORT HILLS: I see definite, new bud growth on one crape myrtle and possible bud swelling on the other three. It’s been rainy and cool, but the sun came out this afternoon and it’s in the sixties. The late-to-open trees—ash, locust, catalpa, linden, walnut, sycamore—are all showing leaves.

We are off to Virginia for the weekend tomorrow with Bill and Lynn to the Inn at Little Washington.

New blooms: Korean spice viburnum, azalea, beech, sweet woodruff.


Azalea, first flowers on the first bush. Last year first flowers were on May 12.

Korean spice viburnum is an early bloomer, although usually not this early. It's very aromatic-good, but doesn't make seeds-bad.

Hemlock. You can see last year's cones in brown, one old cone from two years ago is dark brown, and new, small cones, just starting, in green. The new cones will need pollination by those yellow clusters to produce seeds. There is a twig bud starting to open near the lowest new cone. The cones are always on the end of the twig. They are pollinated by wind.

Copper beech. The tree has flowers of two sexes. The male, pollen-making, flowers are hanging down, and the female flower is the purple, prickly-looking one above the new leaves that will become the beechnut. They are pollinated by wind. Wind pollination means the plant doesn't have to provide colorful flowers, perfume, or nectar for the bugs.

A Rainy Day.

4-26-19 SHORT HILLS: It’s a nice rainy day today, so I’m inside looking outside. We just had some rumblings of thunder and Kaley the dog is upset in spite of the CBD.

I am still busy doing more pruning. Now that most of the shrubs are in leaf, I can see the dead stalks and cut them out, which makes room for new growth. Everything is showing life except for the four crape myrtles. I know that they are always late risers, but really, it’s almost May. It would be surprising if they all died, but not impossible.

One dogwood and two caryopteris are dead, a yellow twig dogwood and a weigela are struggling, but alive. One pleasant surprise is a volunteer chestnut tree growing near the road, but under the utility wires. I will have to move it to prevent it from being trimmed by the utility crews. I’m deciding where it should go, depending on what dies and whether the spot is roomy enough for a tree to grow.

New blooms: yellow lamium, purple lamium, Virginia blue bells, blueberry.


Purple lamium. These are not simple flowers. The purple above and the yellow below have an umbrella-like upper petal with the pollen on  its underside, and a landing platform petal below for the pollinator seeking nectar from the center well.

Yellow lamium. Two flowers in profile and one full face. The pollinator carries pollen from flower to flower on its back.

Blueberry flower is a white bell, similar to andromeda, leucothoe, and lily-of-the-valley.

Virginia blue bell, another woodland ephemeral.

Greening Up.

4-22-19 SHORT HILLS: We had a fast trip back to NJ, somehow avoiding Easter traffic. The snow piles in VT were much smaller after two days of warm rain, and wherever the beds became snow free, perennials started appearing.

Spring is much advanced in NJ—leaves are visible on the oaks, beech, tulip tree, elm, hawthorn, walnut, chestnut, catalpa, maple, magnolia, but the ash and locust are still hesitant. There was 1.6 inches of rain while we were in VT. We are getting more rain today. The grass is growing and green.

New blooms: dogwood, Kwanzan cherry, quince, apple, dandelion, bleeding heart, more daffodils.


Dogs are ready for the trip back to NJ. Bally is the black and white mound on the back left. Do they look happy to leave VT?

Considerably reduced snow piles after two days of warm rain.

Frog eggs two days after the ice melted.

I know it's an object of universal disdain, but it's actually a beautiful flower.

Kwansan cherry blossoms appear as the Yoshino cherry flowers are fading.

Daffodil--pretty in pink.

A political statement.

Rain Melts Snow.

4-20-19 VERMONT: We had another day of hard rain and the snow piles are much reduced in size. It was in the sixties. There was some early sun, but the skies closed up and drenched us. We were out running chores with the dogs. I had hoped to start playing pick up sticks, but there was too much rain.

I did walk around the pond early and the frogs have already left blobs of gel filled with eggs on the edges of the pond. One turtle was on the bank most of the day trying to catch some sun. I guess the air is now warmer than the bottom of the pond.

New blooms: red maple.


Beds awakening after the snow is gone.

Perennials pop up as the snow recedes.

Snowdrops are all over.

With the pond melted, this turtle is catching some rays.

Froggy going courting.

Spring Begins in VT.

4-19-19 VERMONT: We’ve been here since Wednesday. There are huge piles of snow and ice under the eaves and at the end of the driveway. These are the places where the shoveled and plowed snow accumulates. These piles turn to ice at the bottom and last forever, or at least until May. The rest of the yard and pasture are mostly free of snow. The ground is wet and the grass matted down when the snowmelt is recent, and the grass is showing a little green where the snow has been gone for a longer time.

The pond has melted around the sides, leaving a big floating island that the wind blows around. By today the island had vanished and the frog opera has started.

Neighbor Andy took his farm equipment out of the barn a month ago when the ground seemed frozen so that the tractor wouldn’t make ruts in the newly graded pasture, but one small section in front of the barn did get rutted. Today he and I worked on the ruts and flattened them out pretty well with a tamper. Later Judy and I limed, seeded and hayed the area. It’s getting rain tonight. There’s a big frost heave under the barn and the center of the floor is raised up about a foot. I’ve done a bunch of other chores, mostly undoing the winterization I did in the fall.

One thing about this time of year is the sight lines. The snow has gone and the leaves aren’t out yet and the grass hasn’t grown tall so one can see into the woods and see the shape of the land and the terrain.

There were a pair of mergansers on the pond for a few minutes, and I saw an Eastern bluebird both yesterday. The bluebird was incredibly blue. Sorry, no pix.

In the parts of the beds that are snow free, plants are poking their heads up. The snowdrops are everywhere. Hellebore are starting to flower and daffodil have flower buds.

New blooms: snowdrop.


Massive snow piles under all the eaves will take weeks to melt and give me access to the flower beds.

Most of the snow cover is gone from the pasture and woods.

More snow and ice piles.

Broken branches litter the yard, literally thousands of them have appeared with the snow gone from the yard.

The pond has started to melt. It has a large floating island that blows around.

Snowdrops pop up through the debris and snow.

Two days later the island has lost much of its real estate. A few hours later it was only a memory and the frogs have started singing.

More of the Parade.

4-16-19 SHORT HILLS: The last storm, on the night before last, gave us 1.2 inches of rain. We are probably caught up. There was a lot of electrical activity, and Kaley was very upset with the flashing and crashing. A little CBD seemed to help.

Today started out cool, but ended up in the sixties. The rain, sun and warmth have brought several flowers out of hiding.

Vermont tomorrow.

New blooms: violet, pear, quince, bloodroot, trout lily, barberry.


Chipping sparrow, first visit that I've noticed this spring.

C.S. again.

Daffodil, different flavor.

Violet. Another spring miniflower.

Yochino Cherry at peak.

Pear flower.

Trout lily with pollinator bee gets the whole job done in a couple weeks and is off the rest of the year.

Bloodroot is very short lived flower, but the leaves are around all season.

Spring Parade.

4-14-19 SHORT HILLS: We had another rainstorm that delivered 0.8 inches to give everything a good soaking, and it was followed by warm summery weather. Lots of things have popped open. Many more plants are just a day or so away from presenting their flowers.

I have continued to do pruning of winterkill and am about half way around the yard for the second pass. I put up the screen panels in the outer doors, repaired the pool cover pump, turned off the heat, for now, and transplanted some ajuga to spots that were asking for a ground cover.

If there are no nasty weather surprises in the next few weeks, it will be a very early spring. We are almost a week ahead of last year, and a couple weeks ahead of ten years ago. Climate change in action.

Bill and Lynn and Leesa and Roger were here for dinner last night. Judy outdid herself once again. We started off outside on the terrace for canapés and had a nice sunset before moving inside.

New blooms: march marigold, Yoshino cherry, boxwood, saucer magnolia, daffodil, Norway maple.


Marsh marigold with a pair of pollinators.

Yoshino cherry in white opens before the pink Kwanzan cherry.

Little yellow flower of boxwood.

More spring yellow. I don't seem to be getting many daffodils this year.

Saucer magnolia after the rain.

Norway maple hybrid 'Crimson King' with a bee at work.

Opera and Ephemera.

4-9-19 SHORT HILLS: Saturday night we were at Lincoln Center to hear Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, his penultimate opera. It is not often performed, but the Met is doing it this season. It got a fair review in the NYT, but we liked it a lot. How could it be bad with three hours of Mozart music? It has two trouser roles where women play Roman noblemen, a ridiculous plot, the women wore 18th century gowns, but the men were in stuff that looked like it was left-over from The Magic Flute. The set was the Roman forum looking pretty much in ruins, probably how it looked in Mozart’s time, but not how it looked during Emperor Titus’s reign around 80 AD.

We ate in the opera house at The Grand Tier Restaurant, quite good. It's been a long time since I ate on a thick, white tablecloth.

Back here in the garden, I have continued to do the spring pruning and other chores. I transplanted a bunch of ajuga growing on the walkway to some spots that could use a ground cover. Yesterday was summery, but today feels like November. We did get two rainstorm that each gave us a quarter inch of precip.

At the feeders the goldfinches are changing into their summer outfits. I think I saw a catbird yesterday. We still have a lot of grackles hanging out here.

New blooms: claytonia, Siberian squill.


Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center. The Met Opera is behind me.

The scrim displayed during the overture to La Clemenza di Tito.

Applause after the performance. The gowns look appropriate for 18th century women, the menswear was probably bought at a final clearance sale at the costume shop.

Claytonia is another spring beauty that disappears soon after blooming.

Dark-eyed junco with some brownish color on the back and head, usually in the eastern US they're only gray/black with white on the ventral surface.

Siberian squill will also be dormant shortly after the bloom is over.

Yellow Journalism.

4-5-19 SHORT HILLS: It was supposed to rain four times in the past week, but each predicted episode was a bust with little or nothing in the rain gauge. Today we have had a fairly steady, gentle rain, maybe we'll get a measurable amount. It looks like there’s snow north of here. The temps here have been seasonal, almost warm in the afternoon. Several days were quite windy.

I have done flagstone path repairs, fence repairs, more pruning and cleaning up deadfall. I started the sprinkler system because things have been dry, even this early in the season. Some sprinkler heads needed cleaning or re-aligning.

We had dinner with Alan and Judy, another Judy, last weekend at Gramercy Tavern, excellent as always. Jonathan was visiting here on business this week. We ate out one night at Central and Main in Madison, mediocre meal. I had lunch with Bill last Saturday. We had to wait for a table in Chatham at a place that once was the Mainmast, our high school hangout.

New blooms: pachysandra, spicebush, forsythia.


Forsythia are just getting started, but there's enough yellow to publish.

Crocus in pachysandra.

More yellow, spice bush.

Pachysandra flowers.