Little effort is required to add color to the garden in March. Swelling buds and emerging perennials are glorious, but after a winter with only scattered blooms, flowers now fill the garden (with more every week). Delightful swaths of daffodils (above) are scattered through the garden, just enough that I am not tempted (for the…

At the start of March, there are countless garden tasks to be accomplished. I dislike lists, so the various chores will not be enumerated. Otherwise, the list would be ignored as so many others before it, including ones prepared by others who certainly have learned their lesson after so many decades. Later in the gardening…

A year ago, the ‘Okame’ cherry (Prunus ‘Okame’, below) bordering the koi pond flowered gloriously alongside the massive paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha), both in the last week of February. While paperbushes have flowered here as early as late January, this was the earliest bloom I recall for the cherry. While the flowers of ‘Okame’ and the…

Barbara alerts me that she has discovered a marvel, a hellebore with flowers of three colors (below). I am quite pleased she has made the rounds on this mild early March morning, but her discovery is far short of astonishing. Unsurprisingly, carelessness in failing to transplant (or remove) hellebore seedlings has yielded several delightful (for…

The flowers of sweetbox (Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis) are small but sweetly scented. At least, that’s what I hear, and possibly that’s why it was planted many years ago, but before I realized I can’t smell a thing. Sweetbox is slow to get started, but after a few years, it begins to spread slowly but…

The start of the late winter flowering bulb season reminds me that this garden at the low point of neighboring hills is a few degrees colder than properties just up the slope.  Bright yellow daffodils against the gray skies are enjoyed in the neighborhood, while here there are fat buds but no flowers for another…

Again this winter, I’ve scoured catalogs (websites) looking to add a few yellows, both hellebores and toad lilies (Tricyrtis). Why? I do not have any particular preference for it. No doubt, there are plenty of yellow blooms in the garden and perhaps an overabundance in gardens in general. But in both hellebores and toad lilies,…

This somewhat mild afternoon in mid-February, I admire the splendid foliage of a small patch of Italian arum (Arum italicum, below) struggling against a shallow rooted Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) in the shaded side garden. The few sprigs of arum were rescued a year ago from a second small colony on the verge of failure, competing…

I am, at first, cautious in adding plants to the garden. Don’t laugh, I tell Barbara, the knowing skeptic. Many, perhaps most, purchases are considered for cost and the likelihood that each will thrive. I should, but don’t always consider where the plant will fit into this crowded garden. Once objections are satisfied, I proceed,…

The end is near, no matter that snow covers the garden this morning. Spring’s growth becomes more evident by the day as buds swell and sedums and other perennials sprout colorful new leaves. All are small with several weeks of winter ahead, but this is the gardener’s encouragement after too many weeks of bleakness. Of…

In the grayness of winter, I declare that no flowers of hellebores are ugly or anything less than splendid. Still, the gardener must recognize the remarkable efforts of breeders who have introduced so many marvelous variations. I continue my devotion to hellebores planted many years ago and to the many seedlings that have been transplanted…

With too many idle hours in the first weeks of retirement, I am nearly as anxious to get working outdoors as I am impatient for plants to wake from their winter slumber. No doubt, my winter purchases have exceeded those of prior years, and soon, I look forward to beginning to figure where all will…