The new gardener soon learns that there is nothing typical about the timing of spring flowering. The early flowering magnolias illustrate this perfectly. In the natural order of this garden, ‘Merrill’ (below) flowers earliest of the magnolias, in early March, occasionally in late February, and as late as the last week of March as we…

No matter that there is minor disappointment in the delayed arrival of some spring flowers, every inch of the garden must be toured daily to witness the day’s emerging blooms. At first peek, identification is often unclear with so many small groupings of varied choices, but most reveal themselves shortly. After a slow start, several…

While spring offers no guarantees, I’m feeling it’s spring. Warm days earlier in March were followed by cooler temperatures and nighttime freezes, and yes, next week will be cooler, but fifties and sixties are delightful. Soon enough I’ll be cursing the heat. It must be spring. Every evening upon returning home, I spend every minute…

Sections of a wide spreading clump of ‘Evergold’ carex that encroached into a large patch of snowdrops were carefully cut to the ground several weeks ago. This was accomplished with the loss of only two snowdrops, a surprisingly small number since the sedge and snowdrops appeared hopelessly intertwined. There are plenty of snowdrops remaining, in…

While mid winter flowers of hellebores, when little else is blooming, are most appreciated, it is in March that most reach their peak, delightful bloom. No matter that many flowers nod downward, their abundance catches the eye of neighbors in this garden that is barely seen from the street after several large magnolias come into…

A wide spreading mass of yellow flowered winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum, below) tumbles over boulders at the koi pond’s edge. The cheerful blooms often brighten gray winter days, but a chilly late winter has delayed flowering into March when there are many superior blooms. There is no question that the jasmine can be an unruly…

Three large evergreens, an English yew and an Alaskan cedar at the shaded rear corner of the house, and a Blue Atlas cedar halfway down the rear garden beside the koi pond, have required removal in the past year. A ‘Silver Cloud’ rebud that leaned at a severe angle was removed after long debate. All…

Most years, the early spring cleanup is drudgery, an unpleasant several days of mind numbing chores. All over again, I can hear my mother’s voice demanding “make your bed”, “clean your room”, or “take out the trash. NOW”. And like a petulant, sixty-six year old child, I stomp my feet and pout until I’m otherwise…

But of course, you say, a thirty dollar hellebore must be better than any of dozens of seedlings (free plants) that are greatly appreciated and transplanted liberally about the garden. While single flowered hellebores planted years ago are prodigious in providing seedlings, and still quite wonderful in bloom, many newer types have showier double and…

In recent weeks, overly dense and cluttered clumps of hellebores were thinned from an area that drains from the earliest planted hellebores in the garden. A Chinese dogwood interrupts the flow of rainwater, and here a layer of silt and leaf litter has collected that is apparently ideal for hellebore seedlings. As is often the…

With the garden covered by varied degrees of snow and ice in recent weeks, the thinly grassed lawn connecting to the rear garden has become a muddy mess. The narrow passageway from the driveway to the garden has long been a problem, with a poor stand of neglected turf and too much foot traffic. At…

A badly leaning redbud has been removed, and most notably, its debris has been cleared. Too often, clean up is delayed until later, in particular in the winter months when sloppiness matters less. Needless to say, I am pleased by this effort that should be the standard rather than the exception, and thus there is…