Some of them are obvious - the plein air painters are given away by their clever folding easel contraptions, fistfulls of brushes and color smeared canvases. But there are other Artists lurking and working in the garden and you’d never know it … These secret Artists also might not be inclined to call their particular creative creations “Art” (with a capital A) but guess what?! They are!! (Says me!)

One secret Artist-at-work is Dianne Whitehead. Dianne volunteers in the Rose Garden (a Florabunda, doncha know) and has also been one of the crew creating floral arrangements for the house. This week she went all-out for a friend’s daughter’s wedding and there are flowers everywhere! No one can tell me that this stunning arrangement that she made for the front hall isn’t Art!

And then there are the guys. Fred and Dan spend a chunk of every week on ride’em mowers back and forth across acres of lawn and they evidently use that time wisely in creative rumination. Fred has sculpted a new Idea Bed arbor/ornament each year for the last 4, using bamboo, plus. Last year’s ornament, a “tree” in the middle of the garden caught the most comments so far. Visitors asked “What is that?”, “What’s it for?”, “What’s it do?” Some people thought it was an osprey nest; some thought it was weird and some, like me, thought it was a gorgeous piece of Art. (Since when does Art have to be functional? — That’s Craft’s job.) Yesterday Fred and Dan chopped down the “tree” and yanked it out. Funny Fred said “No wonder the tree died - there aren’t any roots!” and as they were installing fresh bamboo corner posts, Boss-Lady Julie asked “Is that for my hammock?” Turns out she wasn’t far off! Here’s a teaser of the new arbor/ornament roofed with - have you ever seen a net made out of bamboo??? Seeing is believing! (but not for napping.)

And the bloom pic of the day: the Artist is nature playing the Catalpa tree. Sing it!

It wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t hurt to breathe! It’s 81 degrees in the potting shed right now and the humidity is only around 70%. But for June it’s hot! And visibility is down to stupid and Rhode Islanders have been warned not to breathe-in this afternoon due to stupidly elevated ozone levels. Usually we can keep breathing at least into the second week of July…

We’re in the last push to plant before the 4th of July (Gail’s deadline since she usually takes next week off). Yesterday the Deadheads finished planting the new beds in the Display Garden and two weather resistant Rockettes planted the last stragglers in the Idea Beds today. I think I can speak for everyone, plants included, when I say that it’s hard not to wilt in all this mug! So we encouraged the volunteers to go home after tea (The Rockettes today had none of that and just moved into the potting shed shade to sort tulip bulbs). My days have been spent watering and pondering things like how sticky I am and how the wind is an awesome garden designer! Asclepias (Milkweed) has self-sown all over the Idea Beds and I am loving every minute of it. I couldn’t have come up with a more outrageous combination than this milkweed and yarrow if I tried (and I do try!).

The pond is looking pretty low - I hope we get rain soon - I hate to think what could happen to my favorite frogs if it stays dry. (Thunderstorms are predicted for tonight and tomorrow but fingers crossed: we’ve heard that one before.) Yesterday I came crashing into the water garden and startled this pretty little heron from its wade. I remembered that I should walk more gingerly this morning only after I had frightened it away again…

We ran from full-tilt planting, past Go, to marathon watering. There have been these strings of spectacularly sunny and breezy days, so crisp it seems like it’s possible to see all the way to the Azores. Not a normal June altogether! (But then again what’s normal? - Last June we had deluge after deluge…) After 2 days away from Blithewold though, it seems like the toddlers became teenagers - the Sweetpeas are shoulder high all of a sudden and blooming madly and the Nicotiana sylvestris grew from cracker-size to tea kettles just in the last few days and there are dahlias (’Sneezy’) blooming in the North Garden. I don’t feel like I need to admonish anything for slow growing anymore - now it’s me that’s got to run to catch up!

At least watering (by hand) gives me ample opportunity to pause and smell the roses - in this case, sweet peas! I am currently head-over-heels for one called ‘Nimbus’. My other true love on the fence is Clematis ‘Roguchi’. It’s been blooming for about a month and holds up beautifully in arrangements. (our volunteer arrangers from the Bristol and Barrington Garden Clubs have been doing a great job picking!) I’m really glad plants are not jealous lovers - we can be floozies in the garden and have busloads of favorites and if we change our minds tomorrow, no hard feelings!

In a comment on my last post, a good friend of mine spoke (rather eloquently, I thought) about a dreamy, different sort of world than the one we inhabit now. He said, “i envision a world in which … everything in the form of entertainment comes from real people right in front of you, and communication might be slower than it is now, but more effective, and everyone smiles more …” (Brendan’s comment, in its entirety, is a click away at the end of my last post). By all accounts the Rock Garden Soiree was the kind of evening that offered a glimpse into that beautiful world. Marjorie Jeffries played her own compositions on the flute while people soaked up falling light in the garden, sipped wine and enjoyed eachother’s company. The evening was a perfect topping to a variable New England day - the threatening rain gave way to clear, mosquito-less skies, a breeze for the Wednesday night yacht race in Bristol harbor and that perfect balance of humidity that probably made everyone’s hair look just right. I wasn’t there but Gail took the pictures of gorgeous people enjoying a gorgeous evening. The next Soiree will be in the North Garden on July 11. Let’s go!

Gail and I were “real people” entertainment today at the Newport Flower Show - allowing us another glimpse of a beautiful world… We gave a tag-team demonstration on how to create a terrarium (a beautiful mini-world) in front of about 70 people. (There was only one mic so instead of just finishing Gail’s sentences, I had to come up with a whole bunch of my own! It was kinda fun! –I was actually too exhausted to be my usual terrified…). This is a peek at the demo terrarium I made with the most adorable begonia! (I think it might have to live at my house for awhile - I’m sure there’s no room for it here…!)

I am constantly on the hunt for the right-tool-for-the-job and both Gail and I have amassed an array of sunscreen that is starting to resemble a pharmacy shelf display and is draining our wallets. Last week one of our volunteers brought in a copy of a Consumer Reports article that rates all the sunscreens (Neutrogena 45 and NoAd 45 got the highest ratings) and it also brought up the question of whether nanosized particles of the minerals, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide might be small enough to enter the bloodstream and travel to the brain causing diseases like Parkinson’s. According to everything I’ve read (just a little this morning) the jury is still out on nano particles. The Consumer Reports article also said that a lot of sunscreens aren’t actually protecting us against UVA radiation. Great. And according to other sources, there’s some debate over whether sunscreen really protects against skin cancer and all the chemicals in the non-mineral based sunscreens might cause big problems too. This article from National Geographic sorted it out a little for me - at least it was what I wanted to hear: mineral based sunscreens are probably the best bet - just make sure to use a lot and reapply after sweating or swimming. (I haven’t found that they sting when I sweat either and I have canary-in-the-coalmine skin…)

Even on a fog bound, rainy day like today, it’s important to wear the screen (just in case) - it’s those UVA rays, doncha know… This morning the Rockettes scoured the Rock Garden for weeds, yellow leaves and deadheads while Gail and I tried to name and label all of the plants. Thank you again, Marion Murray (our Rock Garden Guru transplanted to the wilds of Utah) for keeping such great lists!!. I think we’re ready to show off at the Soiree tonight! After tea, while it rained, we all washed the sooty mold and scale off the citrus’s. They look so much better! One visitor (my mom, having an Alice in Wonderland sort of day) said they looked like we were painting the roses red - it was that kind of job!

Another “part 2″ for today is the Tamarix is blooming again! Here it is with Amorpha and a chorus line of cormorants. Another visitor (not my mom) commented that she was surprised to see it blooming so early (she was more surprised to hear from me that it had already bloomed a month ago) but she got me wondering and sure enough I had the wrong name all along. It’s not Tamarix ramosissima (which blooms late summer) but either T. parviflora or T. tetrandra. Fred, Dan - Help me out!

It’s probably too late for me. Smooth, milky white skin just isn’t in the cards. I’m young enough that I grew up wearing sunscreen at the beach - but old enough that it was bright orange oil called suntan lotion and had an SPF of 4. Now I slather on tablespoons of SPF 30 a few times a day until the titanium dioxide and zinc oxide turn my already brown skin a pasty shade of zombie. I’ve heard that if skin cancer isn’t a scary enough prospect, now we’re supposed to be worried about death and disease by nanoparticles in our sunscreen! What to do?! I had a chance to contemplate all of this while up to my elbows in greenhouse shading. Plants get sunburned too and Julie protected some of her children with a parasol. Now that the shading is on (again!), I might borrow the umbrelly for me… Most of the plants are out of the big greenhouse now and the little one will continue to be home to terrariums, some begonias and the cutting bench residents.

One way to avoid damage from the sun and scary sunscreen is to stay indoors. But that’s just not a practical option for us gardeners and garden appreciators. Think of all you’d miss! — like this Salvia lanceolata (left). It’s a short guy with greyer than greygreen foliage and an early flower (at least for us since it came out of the greenhouse). And Symphytum x uplandicum ‘Axminster Gold’ (right). It’s about 12″ tall now with 3-4″ serrated, pointed, variegated green and yellow leaves. Both might glow a little in the dark but the subtle details would disappear!

The Annual Meeting is behind us, the (monthly) Garden Soirees are before us, visitors visit daily and the blooms must go on! I know I’m not the only one who tidies madly at home for invited guests and then slacks off the dusting when it’s just me and mine eating in. At Blithewold though - and any garden open to the public, there’s no napping instead of mowing or sipping iced tea in the adirondacks rather than deadheading! We’re on the “garden tour” every day and it’s important to us and to our guests that the gardens and grounds look well tended. The night of the Annual Meeting was chilly enough to move the party indoors and despite the ominous clouds and bitter wind, several Blithewold devotees wandered the grounds. We (I think I can speak for Julie, Gail, Fred and Dan) were extremely gratified to hear over and over how beautiful the property looks and how well cared for it is. And we were back bright and early the day after to keep at it.

The Florabundas (the Thursday volunteers) who cleaned grape hyacinth out from under the chestnut rose last week, did the same thing on the other side of the Visitor’s Center yesterday. The bed with climbing roses on the west side of the rose garden has been getting more and more concrete-like over the years and we spent the morning forking out weeds and bulbs and working a little air in finally. (The entire Rose Garden definitely has a compaction problem because we stand and walk all over the beds when we tend the roses.)

Today, I’ve been trying to concentrate on getting more plants out of the greenhouse. But just like moving out of a house, I’m not loving this part of the process! I much prefer the part at the end of moving where I get to feng shui the pots around the garden. I also love to groom potted plants and keep getting distracted…

So rather than fight it, here’s some blooms for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day: The lopsided Styrax - blooming only on the east side. Fred thinks its because of the weird winter or maybe it’s not getting enough sun (there’s a bunch of Styrax’s not blooming at all…)

The Aegopodium is blooming away in the Bosquet. It really is a pretty ground cover but it’s completely obnoxious and invasive – don’t plant it!!!

This is a Persicaria or maybe a Polygonum. Anyone know for sure what it’s called?

One of my new favorites is Allium ‘Hair’. It’s definitely morning monster hair rather than a frenchgirl coif… Gotta love it! (Or do you?)

And for color here’s Papaver atlanticum semiplenum with a busybee.

Finally, not-a-bloom but a beneficial-to-be — a teeny! weeny! praying mantis! (I saved him/her from a spiderweb and it didn’t want to stand still for a portrait - but I insisted.)

This past week everyone on the staff has had a certain look on their face - a focused, single-minded and frenzied sort of glaze - because Blithewold’s Annual Meeting is tonight. And everything must. be. perfect! Reports were written and rewritten, speeches have been practiced (”I want to thank the Academy…”), smart looking outfits have been pressed and set aside, and all the gardens have been gone over with a fine toothed weeder and each open flower was inspected for beauty and eligibility. Yesterday the Deadheads poured over the whole Display Garden - and weeded out the last and toughest bed. I would have loved to take a picture when they were all bent over under the smoke bush looking like so many of that funny cutout lawn ornament. But to publish such a picture would have been unkind of me! (You have to know, it’s the hardest thing to take a picture of the volunteers working and NOT shoot that pose!) Today the Rockettes attended to four gardens giving the whole place a last minute spruce and I think we can safely say we’re ready. Now if only it was a little less bitter cold! (I’m going to have to run home for mittens and a knit cap).

Chilly temps might keep our members from wandering all the way over to the Display Garden this evening, but if they do come by they might notice this lovely lady blooming right now. (I couldn’t wait for Gardener’s Bloom Day to show this one!…) It’s Campanula ‘Kent Belle’. This is a blooming beauy too of a different sort altogether - Check out the shoes!!.

Newsflash - This just in!: Layanee stopped by! I feel like I have arrived. And it was oddly reassuring to meet a fellow blogger in person - we’re really real people hanging out in this virtual world!  I can’t wait to see your pictures, Layanee!

Honk if foundation plantings make you cringe! There’s no doubt about it, it’s difficult to live in the world and not at least have a neighbor with Yertle the Turtle style bubble shrubberies flanking their front door. (I love Dr. Seuss!…) But there’s definitely a trick to creating a foundation planting that doesn’t say “Hello, folks - I’m a foundation planting!” I can’t claim to know any of the tricks (am currently a shrubbicidal maniac at my own house with no permanent plans for the bare places yet) but I suspect it might be important to think of the house as a garden ornament rather than just a great big thing that the garden bumps up against.

The above editorial is by way of introducing a new planting that Fred and Dan are working on today! The bed right in front of the front door porch was in need of rehab. The Bonica roses were fired (although they were about to peak beautifully, peak has always been followed by peaked) and are being replaced by Daphne burkwoodii, Spirea thunbergii ‘Ogon’ and Picea pungens ‘Glauca Procumbens’. The guys were a little worried that I might claim credit … maybe because they used one of my favorite color schemes… (Notice the colors in the pot on the porch - that I planted… hmmmm…) Anyway, what they came up with for that bed is exciting because it shows that creative use of color and texture doesn’t detract from the house - it enhances it!

In other news, I’m practicing patience. I have to stop myself from bouncing up and down in front of all the recently planted annuals and tender perennials saying, “Grow! Grow now!” Pretty soon the Nicotiana sylvestris which are still only the size of ritz crackers will be a respectable 5 feet tall. Pretty soon. And the dahlia/grass bed will look abundant one day… All in good time…

I really enjoy working with each group of volunteers and I missed out a little this week. We called off the volunteers on Tuesday because of Monday’s torrential rain and I was lashed to my desk on Wednesday. But Thursday!! We all got underneath the chestnut rose — everyone was poked in the nogg by thorny low hanging branches — and cleaned out all the forget-me-nots and grape hyacinths and weeds. It was a big big big job and it looks really beautiful now because you can finally see the gorgeous form of the (still blooming) tree. And then - Tea Time! I have to say my favorite time of the week is 10:30 on Thursday mornings. It’s better than second grade recess. Check out the spread! Fruit salad and cake and pastries - oh my!

Today (with no baked motivation *sigh*) Gail and I did another chunk of planting. The Epimediums finally arrived so we finished off the new dry shade bed under the Sophora by the Moon Gate and after lunch (salad *yawn*) we planted what we placed in the new megalith (for lack of a better name at this moment) bed in the Display Garden. I love it! We put in a bunch of different kinds of cupheas and some relocated grasses, knifophias, Aeoniums, phormiums, senecios, plectranthus, salvias and soon the guys will move the big smoke bush (Cotinus) over to this bed. The bed is heavy on burgundy with some inky and smokey blue blots and a little rainbow color here and there. The froth of bloom behind the mini megatithic structure is Crambe cordifolia.

I took a lot of rose pictures this week because they’re just opening and looking so pretty with all their still-green foliage but instead of one of those pics here’s one of our new sweet peas instead! We’ve had trouble getting a good red to germinate and bloom in recent years but this one is a winner - Red Arrow is as red as it gets! Orange is next on my list. (We keep trying!)

And here’s a bamboo update: last week and this week!