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When we arrived from Milan in early April, winter honeysuckle was still fragrant by the front door. Drooping Snowdrops & little blue stars of Scilla dotted the fern bed. The ferns were vestigial lumps, but Hellebores were opening white or purplish flowers. The narcissus were just beginning – first waves of yellow along the street, then the Poetici with their intense orange centers & the Thaliae – pure white like old-Dutch caps. By now the few narcissi left are withering; but out back behind the pool the camellias are fulsome pink although yesterday’s wind left a carpet of petals. Along the borders & back into the rock gardens, Solomon’s seals are having their quiet day, 
arching up & dangling their rows of off-white cylinder seals – many more this year than last & you know that they are gathering strength to push their white tubers further along the slopes behind the rocks. The bleeding hearts are back
 Dicentra eximia |
 Dicentra spectabillis |
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& stronger than ever: classic pink & white hanging hearts (Dicentra spectabilis) that bloom once then wither, but equally classic those that bloom all summer (Dicentra eximia). |
Out front on the south border, the three monumental pink Azaleas are just reaching full bloom. Beneath & around them, the native Columbines are starting to open, nestled under Solomon’s seal. To one side, the stronger of the pawpaws has many flowers dangling down like inverted purplish cups. The weaker has only mustered a few leaves on its lowest branches – less than last year, but at least not waiting till summer, so maybe hope for next year. The Angelica gigas is already flourishing, promising to live up to its name. |
Meanwhile ferns & hostas are beginning to unfold. Everywhere Ostrich ferns have opened their pale green fans in circles although their tips are still tightly rolled like fiddleheads. The Lady ferns are shiny & darker, the Male ferns hairy & coarse, Maidenhairs delicate on their gleaming wire-like stems, Christmas ferns & rock ferns look like ladders unfurling; Goldie’s fern – to be the tallest of all – is just starting to stretch its stems; Cinnamon ferns thicker than ever, mingling with columbines in the south yard & spreading their clumps along the bottom of the bog; at its top, the stately stalks of Royal ferns already tall but their tops still tightly curled; the wood ferns out by the Crape myrtle tall with their tops pale yellow & just beginning to unroll; finally native Bracken in the woods tall &.shiny but still also tight. |
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Peony buds starting to show pink The three stands of P.obovata from mere seedlings six years ago, one in pure shade, already leafed out but single; two in sun & part sun, multiplied with five & six stems up although the leaves still rolled. |
Tree peony buds also swelling at the pool’s southwest corner. Out on the island that cuts the lawn, David’s roses five-feet tall & sending out runners to colonize the whole space, making me move two small shrubs & some iris. The precious Davidia involucrata from Arnold Arboretum has survived, just putting out leaves, but its trunk twisted. One of the Beach plums has white flowers all along its stems & a few berries are forming on one of the Shads. Most of the blueberries are covered with blooms, but one of the New Brunswick dwarfs has suddenly perished: did it get too much ammonium sulfate?
A white iris gradually unrolled all yesterday despite the violent wind. Today it is open – harbinger of later spring. |
