I think winter’s gone upside down for the moment. Less than a week ago I posted this about an honest to goodness arctic-like morning where my fingers felt like they might fall off and I couldn’t hide my nose deep enough in my scarf to keep mean Jack from biting. This week the temperatures in RI have risen into the 60’s. Weird. I’m not inclined to complain - the other day I worked in the potting shed with the outside door wide open while the greenhouse vents flapped up and down (they’re set at 75 and 80 degrees F, I kid you not). It’s pleasant to walk out in less than eleven layers of clothing. The smell of thaw outside is gorgeous and sweet and I want to suck it all up and wear it like perfume. Birds are singing, the bees have been out for a stretch and still-fat squirrels are racing all around. The weather is perfect for winter walks and wildlife sightings (hawks have been circling overhead). I like it. But it’s weird.

I’m nervous for the spring flowerers. If you were a bud wouldn’t you want to swell to burst in this weather? The Forsythia are still wrapped but the Quince is showing an awful lot of green… And the Witch-hazel buds might open soon.

The unseasonable warmth can induce a gotta-get-out panic in gardeners too. It’s ok. Relax. It’s not time to cut the garden back yet. Instead, go for a walk and look for buds, keep perusing the seed catalogs and start thinking about fertilizing your houseplants again. The sun is out again today so I gave half-strength fish emulsion (Neptune’s Harvest, 2-4-1) to our big potted flowerers like the Camellias, the citruses and Gardenia and to particularly anemic looking other things. In another couple of weeks on another sunshine day, I’ll feed the whole greenhouse (except the Sweet Olive -Osmanthus fragrans- which, we found out recently, prefers starvation).

Tomorrow the forecast is calling for rain and thunderstorms. Thunder in winter? - Weird. After that maybe it will start to feel like January again.

I know a lot of you in the world are used to cold weather but this Bristol morning’s wicked cold temps felt remarkable to me! And just to prove it, I took my camera to the water for a couple of shots of the harbor boil, rimy ice on the rocks and the wind that made me send my nose and faceparts scarfward. brrrrrr!!!! It was a fast, frozen fingers, fogged glasses walk back to the potting shed, I’m telling you!

The greenhouse was covered in ice and the uninsulated potting shed windows were gorgeously glazed. Gail and I cranked the heat (to a balmy 62), leaned our elbows on the radiator next to the table and spent the whole day scheming and planning each garden, working our way across the property from the Rose Garden to the Rock Garden. Now that we have color ideas (no, we’re not stuck on orange this year - yet!) we’re ready to dive into catalogs starting tomorrow…

Snow snow snow! And a Garden Blogger’s Bloomday (hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens) a day early. I practically wore out the shutter of my little camera taking pics yesterday and today (I think I could smell it smoking…) so here are an end of the week bunch. As always, hover over the pictures for a title and click for a larger view.

If I hadn’t overheard Dan say the cherry was blooming I probably would have missed it! Prunus subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’ blooms a bit in the fall - it’s subtle!- and again in the spring. It seems like our recent cold temps should have nipped it in the bud (so to speak) but even a fairly major snowfall didn’t stop a few from opening. Follow my tracks through the Rose Garden to find this tree.

The Harlequin glory bower (Clerodendrum trichotomum) berries are a bluer blue than my camera captured - you’ll have to come see it for yourself!

The Leucothoe fontanesiana shows up multicolored in the snow.

The pond and Rock Garden are sepia toned.

The Burning bush (Euonymus alatus ‘Compactus’) looks like a nest. And the snow has revealed a nest within the nest.

I didn’t want to tread on the Bosquet’s hem - it’s dressed in its finest winter robe. Sometimes I wish I could hover over the surface and not mess it up with burly boot prints. Other times I want to flop around and make a dozen angels. What do you do with the first snow?

The greenhouse inhabitants are in full winter finery too - this selection in honor of Bloom Day includes stock plants - Cuphea micropetala and Salvia vanhoutii ‘Paul’, a Farfugium japonicum ‘Aureomaculatum’ - not blooming but I love its sunspots!, a Camellia chandlerei that just opened, and two views of a Plectranthus hilliardiae ‘Candelabra’ on the low-light houseplants bench. There are many more bloomers - come by for a coat of color! (The greenhouse door is open weekdays and most weekends between 10 and 4 .)

I have this unreasonable - not dread exactly - worry maybe about the approach of winter. I have to keep reminding myself that there are still colors in the winter. I will find them… I know I will! But I keep thinking “the monochrome is coming the monochrome is coming!” and I run around madly trying to glue all of the fall color - every leaf - to my mind’s eye for safe keeping. Good thing I have a camera.

This morning I startled a deer and he hightailed it (Hey! so that’s where that expression comes from!) across the great lawn before I could unholster my camera. Quick Draw McGraw I’m not.

The Maidenhair tree (Gingko biloba) was looking especially gorgeous today so I went in for a close up forgetting the vomit smelling fruit underfoot… Oh well. To me, the picture’s worth a 1000 stinks.

The Franklinia is exhibiting a delicate range of colors - it’s hard to believe this beauty is extinct in the wild - Thank goodness it’s not gone forever from our gardens too. (Plant one!)

The Tupelo is almost done.

But the maples still have a ways to go…

And I bid a fond farewell today to my favorite cutting garden plant (Asclepias physocarpa ‘Oscar’) and some Salvia vanhoutiis (carted off in a red hat lady color combo) from the Idea Beds. Our killing frost is forecast for tonight…

Were you ever scolded as a child -or do you scold your own children- for making a mess? The answer for most of us is probably “you bet”. I submit though that it’s in our natural nature to love a good mess. I think it’s satisfying to fling things and gratifying to tidy up. This morning I admired the aftermath of this weekend’s storm (nature flung things).

My boss, Julie had already picked up sticks in the Bosquet and made piles - sometimes I think she’s actually tempted to go out in a storm and catch sticks as they fall. When I asked Fred if he wanted/needed extra hands (mine) to help clean up he said “it’s not that bad. Unless you have a burning desire to pick up sticks…” I don’t. It’s always less fun to pick up someone else’s mess, don’t you think?

So after doing some stick-picking-up anyway, I made my own mess.

I love to pot up. The potting shed is designed to contain messes. I can spill soil with wanton abandon and groom dead leaves straight onto a floor pile. I don’t have to be careful of the furniture! Today I took the wedding pots apart and divided and repotted the phormiums. Phormiums (New Zealand flax) aren’t as hard to divide as you’d think. I set them on the floor and parted the blades until I found a mid point with at least a semblance of a seam between the fans of blades. Then I stabbed the seam with my hori-hori and wrestled until I felt and heard the rip tear of roots. It was totally satisfying mess making… and I can’t put off the gratification of cleaning up any longer… Do you have a place you can make a proud and uncareful mess?

It just occurred to messy-me that I should tell you that those fingernails will be clean next Thursday for the Annual Garden Design Luncheon and there are still some seats available!

Sometimes, it’s the pockets of lovely that catch and hold my eye rather than the grand view. In my own garden, the whole isn’t as pleasing (yet) as some of the little things here and there. And rather than feel disappointed in the grand view, I’m magnetically drawn in to the pretty parts and could gaze for days at them without even seeing the weeds! (hmmm… could that be a weeding chore avoidance tactic?) At Blithewold, the grand view is always stunning (sometimes overwhelmingly so) but now that we’re putting gardens to bed, and there are holes in the whole, the vignettes are extra especially noticeable and eye capturing.

The trees and shrubs are catching my eyes too - I’ve been waiting for the Common witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) to bloom and it’s beginning just in time for Halloween. Perfect timing because the blooms look, to me, like teeny weeny Tim Burton creations!

The Carolina allspice (Calycanthus floridus) smells like cotton candy this time of year.

The Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) might be my new favorite tree - look at the colors!

This week we were a little undone by rain in the forecast (notice I didn’t say “undone by rain” period - we got some but not a lot in the end) and the Rockettes and Florabundas got days off. I missed the Rockettes’ company when I raked pine needles for the Rock Garden’s winter blanket and Gail and I missed the Florabundas’ when we dropped daffodils in auger drilled holes (Thanks, Fred and Dan!) by the main gate. We’re hoping an April display of daffs by the entrance will entice people to drop in to see the real show inside… I hope the bulbs do ok. The ground along Ferry Road is so fiercely dry, root-y and rocky that we couldn’t (no matter how Hitchcock’s Psycho we went at the holes with our hori-horis) plant some of the daffs at their preferred planting depth of 6-8″ down. You can see in the picture, some are pretty close to the surface… Clever things, they will dig themselves in deeper - if they can!…

The last wedding of the season is this weekend - it will probably be chilly but gorgeous! Cathy (our pinch-hitter garden helper), Gail and I spruced the Rose Garden and North Garden for the bride and her guests - and Jake came along to give his approving head butt. We had pockets of frost this morning but luckily nothing in the gardens was touched. Next week we’ll take out the dahlias in the North Garden, cut back perennials, toss annuals and plant tulips - we’re nearly ready for winter! Are you?

Today dawned damp and foggy. Whenever the air and water temperatures duke it out, we get horizonless vistas, amplified sounds and a glimpse of the world wide spiderwebs — rather than obliviously crashing into spidy infrastructure, this morning we could see all of the guy wires and danced the limbo through the bosquet.

We’re getting on with the move in because even with warm nights continuing in the forecast it’s a good idea to at least start thinking about bringing plants in.
Remember how you gently weaned your houseplants to the outdoors last spring? They want that love in the fall too - bringing them some cold day into an already heated house could be a little shocking! Gail and I are starting with the succulents. In the greenhouse, the temperature climbs to the 90’s on a sunny day, and because there’s nothing much in there for us to water yet, the humidity stays pretty low. Our tender succulents will much prefer to bake a few extra days in the hot dryish than sit in the cool damp of day starts and stops lately - they should be shocked into thrive with the change.

As we load plants to carts, we groom them and set any aside that are in desparate need of repotting or special t.l.c. - This is another reason we plan ahead and stick to our schedule regardless of the weather - it takes time and it’s an important step for anyone bringing houseplants back inside for the season. Check for bugs and treat them; take off scrunky leaves, and repot! This mother bromeliad had several children and -poor rootbound thing- was launching herself out of her pot. With some of the kids detatched and a brand new house, she already looks less suicidal!

I think this might be a good long weekend to tend to your soon-to-be indoor garden. I’m on my way home and have every intention of taking my own advice! What will you do this weekend?

Although there’s no threat of frost in this week’s hot and muggy forecast, this is our traditional time to start bringing Container Bed plants back into the greenhouse. Because we have so many tender plants it’s better for us to have to do a little extra watering once they’re inside than be caught in a frost warning gotta-get-them-in-right-now!-panic. As anyone who’s ever moved knows, it’s good (cathartic even?) to throw unwanted, useless things away first to make the load feel a little lighter. So we’re culling the herd. It’s tougher to throw out living breathing plants than pants you haven’t worn since 1983 though. There’s always the temptation to save them - maybe this year it’ll be beautiful!… Maybe this year it won’t be infested with mealybug!… Maybe this year pinstriped pegged jeans will be back in style…

Our first casualties were the Agapanthus. They were gorgeous once upon a time and we’ve been holding on to them as they’ve gotten more and more pot bound and more and more infested. It’s time to let go. So we asked Nick to do it. Nick The Willing (I think that’s his Viking name), one of the Deadheads, says “Sure! I can do that!” every time we ask him to do some hideous thing. In order to not throw the baby out with the bath water (ie. save the pots), he carved away the poor old roots and took a saw to the pot sides. Now what will we get to fill the empty pots?

Fred spotted somebody else making a move this week. Never-ever, not ever have I ever seen a slug this big outside of a Pacific Northwest rainforest! I’m not sure where he’s been this dry summer or where he was headed but Gail couldn’t help herself and took him home so that her 8 year old could impress the heck out of his classmates. I wonder if they’ve named him yet … He looked like a Jerome to me…

And froggy went a courtin’. The Rockettes found this one in the Rock Garden. The pond has dried up again but looks like a Nepeta nest makes a next best second home.

Anyone else making a move?

I know I’ve already gone on and on about the quality of light this fall - but really, honestly, truly these crispy dew-drop mornings with sloping sunshine are divinely gorgeous! All sorts of lovelies were lit by this morning’s spotlight:

The Tamarisk (Tamarix ramosissima) down by the shore was an effervescent haze of pearly gray-green-blue.

The Seven-son flower (Heptacodium miconioides) are almost prettier just past bloom when the bloom bracts turn a pinky red.

This is my favorite time of year for the Harlequin Glory Bower (Clerodendrum trichotomum). While it’s in bloom the scent is enough to knock me off my feet (or give me at least a little up-the-nose ache) but it’s all worth all kinds of perfume discomfort for the October red gift-wrapped turquoise gem berries.

As long as they’re in residence, I’ll keep taking their picture: This praying mantis must have just had breakfast and was cleaning its paws like a cat…

Mary’s Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) looked like it was singing an aria from center stage. For information about our Memorial/Honorarium tree planting program click here.

And this Trumpet spurflower (Rabdosia longituba) doesn’t need actual dew to look dew-dropped. Plant Delights Nursery describes this as a “woodland member of the salvia family” and it just started blooming for us in the dry shade bed under the Sophora by the Moongate. If Mary’s tree is singing, this is the sheet music!

What’s center stage in your garden?

It rained!! I found a link via Cold Climate Gardening to the U.S. Drought Monitor which shows most of Rhode Island in a moderate drought as of 7:00 AM Tuesday. That’s the day it finally rained and we got a whole 2″ almost! I know it’s only a dent - a drop in the proverbial bucket - but there’s a little water in the pond again and background music of lawn mowers. (It’s amazing how fast the grass grows with a little torrential encouragement.) We’re all dancing jigs here so happy to have a day or two off watering! (Plus it’s important to keep doing the rain dance.) We’ll have to check the drought website again once they get the rainy day data posted…

Gail and I have been waiting months for a rainy day to weed and clean the greenhouse. We’ll start moving back in mid October and with the Display Garden Soiree coming up next Wednesday and Gardener’s Day next Saturday, we really needed a chance to get in there - when it wasn’t 100 degrees inside. Besides the Kenilworth ivy (Cymbalaria muralis), the greenhouse floor was (still is for some) home to a self seeded Four O’clock (Mirabilis jalapa),

a few Geranium madrense,

Some Begonia grandis and even a couple of baby prostrate rosemaries (Rosemarinus officinalis ‘Prostratus’). (It’s amazing what will grow in crushed rock.) We didn’t have the heart to weed out everybody but the benches are clean, the floor is raked and we ready for company!