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.

More Rain and Wind.

4-13-20 SHORT HILLS: Yesterday started out cold, but warmed up nicely. I did more trimming and pruning, mostly forsythia along Great Hills Rd. I have done all the things I need to do, for now, outside the fence that defines the yard. Today we are getting heavy rain and it’s supposed to get very windy.

The birds have been active around the yard and feeders. I was looking for pix of the goldfinches turning color, but also caught some other poseurs.

New blooms: apple.

Goldfinches have almost finished changing  into their summer outfits.

Apple blossom.

Cardinal, male, and female below thinking about a nest site.

She has an idea for a nest neat the feeders.

Mourning doves are also house hunting.

Cold and Windy.

4-11-20 SHORT HILLS: The wind let up this morning, and the day warmed up from the thirties to the fifties. Yesterday there was about five minutes of snow in the air, none on the ground, not the storm I had been dreading.

After our dog walk today, I did a few hours of trimming and pruning. Yesterday was too cold and windy to work outside.

Quince flower from last week typically turns red as it ages.

More daffodils.

Another lamium, this one in yellow, pink and white flavors pending.

Vinca minor, creeping myrtle, has many flowers this year.

A New Bird.

4-9-20 SHORT HILLS: We had a T-storm today with high wind that blew stuff all over, the first day that wasn’t perfect in a while. The sprinklers are on, but there has been enough rain so that they haven’t run.

I’ve been doing pruning and trimming and had a carload of cuttings to take to the dump. I also found a bag of Holly Tone in the garage so I fed some of the shrubs that looked tired or hungry. A man from the fence company was here, and I gave hem a list of posts and rails that we will need to be replaced.

I saw a new bird, new to me, a LBB with reddish tint and white eye ring, spotted whitish breast. A Hermit Thrush, I think. Grackles have been back at the feeders, but only a few, so far, usually we get dozens.

New blooms: more daffodils, barberry, blood root, yellow lamium, dandelion.

Here's a LBB [little brown bird] that I saw in the yard that I don't remember seeing before.

From the back, it has a lot red in the tail. Hermit Thrush??

Blood Root. another early bloomer, these flowers will be history in a few days. The leaf is distinctive.

Barberry flower, each of those will become a little, red football in autumn.

Floral Stampede.

4-6-20 SHORT HILLS: Another magnificent day with a peak at sixty and cloudless sky after 0.2 inches of rain last night. Usually the lawn doesn’t need mowing before May, but I’m thinking next week this year. More flowers are out, and I can hardly keep up.

I saw a goldfinch in his summer clothes yesterday-picture to follow when he holds still.

The hemlocks were sprayed for wooly adelgid today. The therapy is mineral oil, and they will need a few more treatments. Tomorrow the sprinkler people will open the system. I called the fence company for the split rail fence—several posts and rails need replacing.

New blooms: daffodil, quince, claytonia, trout lily.


My only daffodil this year, I hope it's not lonely. There are some other buds.

Quince. It resembles apple, cherry and pear.

Claytonia, another ephemera that will soon be gone, but almost makes parts of the lawn look like new snow.

Claytonia again, white with red pinstripes.

More marsh marigold.

Saucer Magnolia.

Trout lily, named for the leaf coloration, I guess. Another transient that you have to catch while it's up.

More trout lily, at a slightly earlier stage.

Yoshino cherry at peak before the Kwansan cherry has started.

Spring Amid Chaos.

4-4-20 SHORT HILLS: A gorgeous day today in early spring. It’s been a very, very early spring after a mild winter [climate change, anyone], and everything is appearing sooner than usual. The previous few days were cool, windy and rainy, more typical of what’s expected for this time of year.

Even though society is in chaos from the COVID-19 pandemic, spring is providing a respite, for me at least.

Last year at this time forsythia, spice bush and pachysandra were just opening. This year they were out on 3-13, 3-21 and 3-13, weeks earlier. Saucer magnolia opened on 4-5 last year, but on 3-28 this year. You can confirm these dates by looking at last year’s posts for these and other blooming dates.

I have been outside doing more clean up on the nicer days. Usually I fertilize everything at this point, but a trip to Home Depot for the big bags seems unnecessarily dangerous this year.

New blooms: pulmonaria, violet, lamium.


Marsh Marigold in pachysandra. The flower and leaves will shortly disappear until next spring.

Violet amid garden debris that I refer to as 'mulch'. These plants will last into summer. In Vermont they're almost shrubs.

Pulmonaria, these leaves will persist.

Lamium, purple variety, also comes in three other flavors, white, yellow and pink. It's an excellent ground cover.

More magnolia flowers.

South Philippine dwarf kingfisher was pictured in today's NYT. It hasn't been at my feeders. Photo by Dr. Miguel David De Leon.

Sickness and Death.

4-1-20 SHORT HILLS: The April Fool-in-Chief is still lying. Testing is still largely unavailable, PPE’s are in short supply and vents are back ordered. Until face masks, etc. are at every pharmacy for nominal cost, the problem isn’t solved. National lack of preparedness because of understaffed government health offices [CDC, NIH] is causing unnecessary deaths and putting first responders and medical personnel in unnecessary danger.

Deaths are predicted to be between 100,000 and 240,000 from the COVID-19 pandemic [Washington state model]. Assuming the mortality rate of 1% or 2% continues [Lancet article], that would mean up to 24,000,000 cases, working back from the mortality numbers. Actual Mortality in the US states has been running from 1/40 to 1/60 or ~2% of recognized cases, but, of course, the untested, unrecognized cases are a huge mystery. Since there are possibly 10 cases unidentified for every positive test, the total number of cases in the USA might get to 240,000,000, more than half of the population.

This week in the garden there was plenty of rain, 1.2 inches, with seasonal temps and only a little change. We have many daffodils with healthy, full green shoots, but almost no flowers and only a few buds.

New blooms: bleeding heart, boxwood.

Bleeding Heart.

Boxwood flower.

Cherry, forsythia and green grass, the reddish stuff near the forsythia are the first leaves on a copper beech.