Oh my gosh, does this blog still even exist? >insert excuses, apologies, delusional hopes for the future< Well I guess it does, and as you know spring moves fast and I don’t so here’s an update from last Saturday when I thought I could take a few photos and do a quick post before the sun sets on the Sunday… or Monday… or Wednesday…. or
The front border was beautiful last weekend. Individual blooms are a bit beat up, but from a distance nobody cares.
Believe it or not the gardener here has actually been somewhat useful, even if he’s not a good blogger. The to-do list is still behind a few months and some things have already been quietly pushed onto the 2026 list, but overall there has been a mild sense of progress. Hopefully it shows. There’s a huge pile of branches and small tree trunks which shows less attractively than tulips but as always the garden is a work in progress.
A double tulip from back in the day. They were planted a decade or so ago yet still show up here and there depending on where a bulblet dropped or what other plant was moved or removed.
Maybe it’s best to just focus on the tulips. For a week or so some hot weather brought them on too quickly and then wilted the edges, but then cool weather returned for the weekend and they were awesome. Maybe not the best year but good enough, and even though many were missing you can’t complain too much during tulip season so lets focus on the good!
An exceptional crowd of ‘Pink Impression’ alongside some unknown purples.
Ok, maybe a clump of pink tulips is the bulk of the ‘good’. The masses of flowers in the potager are missing this year and in spite of all the trouble and work they involve I really miss them. I blame dry weather when they should have been growing last year, I blame too much wet when they should have been going dormant, and I blame a gardener who got discouraged and then let mice and squirrels have their way with the curing bulbs. Whatever. Gardener forgiven and let me say I really am enjoying the tulips this spring even if my mood this morning does not lend itself to expressing that emotion.
A tray of species tulips (Tulipa clusiana) which were meant to sell at the Gala but just weren’t looking like much that morning. Two months later they’re highlighting the driveway and will be planted out once the blooms fade and I think they’ll do very well in a sunny spot.
Maybe I’m grumpy because I’m not attending the Sakonnet Plant Fair in Little Compton Rhode Island this morning. Each year it grows into something even more tempting and each year I’m even more envious of all the plant nerds who are able to spend the day browsing. Under the guiding hand of Ed and Taylor of the plant nursery Issima the event has grown and perhaps you’ll get an idea of the kind of treasures you’ll find at this sale if you take a look at their offerings. These are exactly the kind of plants I like trying and buying, even if in my heart I know they won’t get the care they need in this garden to truly flourish. But often times they do, and they turn into the “Oh!” plants which every gardener needs.
Not much ‘Oh!’, it’s sparse tulip year in the Potager.
Well look at that. Just talking about the Fair has brightened my mood and I guess all I have to do now is promise to take better care of the spring bulbs and everything will be as it should 🙂
As another plus, the few tulips which have returned look exceptionally healthy this spring. As long as there’s enough sun to dry them out after each rain I think they’ll make excellent bulbs for next season.
So does better care mean more bulbs? Yeah probably, because although the tulips are still excellent I think the daffodil situation could use some work, and by more work I mean dividing and replanting and maybe a few new ones this summer. I’ve been good. I think I earned them.
Many of the daffodils here are quite average but for whatever reason I love them more than I should. This is ‘Capitol Hill’ which is an absolute favorite even if it’s somewhat average, and too old to be new and too new to be old.
I still won’t buy more tulips though. The species tulips didn’t count of course because they were for a sale, so with that out of the way I can still claim I haven’t bought any new tulips for a couple of years. I don’t say this as something to be proud of, I just want to point out my restraint which to some people is a good thing. Here’s my show of restraint in terms of the potager tulips, which are now in the daylily farm, which of course is not where they should be, and puts a bit of a damper on putting daylilies into the daylily farm.
Somehow a couple hundred of the potager tulips went missing and these are all that’s left. They will multiply I’m sure, maybe not as fast as I’d like them to but that’s good since I still have to figure out how to grow daylilies and tulips and maybe cannas and dahlias all in the same daylily farm.
Enough about tulips and daffodils. Let me just gloss over everything else so that I can claim to be up to date on this blog.
The woodland beds, aka snowdrop beds, are coming to life. The shredded umbrella plant (Syneilesis aconitifolia) is cool and I wonder how much cooler a named form with variegation or a purple or yellow flush to the foliage would be. Probably much much cooler.
Fritillaria are one thing I do want to point out quickly. They generally enjoy short lives here but two are at least trying and obviously I should show some appreciation for that effort. Fritillaria mealegris likes the mucky side garden by the pond and is seeding around and clumping up and is ever so intricate with its checkered blooms and snake-head elegance.
Fritillaria meleagris (snake’s head fritillary) not showing up well amongst the fallen petals of a purple magnolia.
Fritillaria pallidiflora is the other frit which I’d like to mention, and in this case it really is to brag. I grew it from seed you know, and it took years and even if you can buy 5 bulbs for like $5 online I think my years of patience in this one last seedling are a far better investment. For reference, the week after I saw these first buds coming along a friend posted a photo of his ‘weedy’ clumps which seed all over the place, but I didn’t let that tarnish the joy of my two blooms at all. Mine will come along I’m sure, even if it takes another 20 years.
Fritillaria pallidiflora in a shaded, woodlandy snowdrop bed. It seems happy in this spot and I hope it stays that way.
You know what doesn’t require much fuss? Epimediums. I’ve been trying to avoid collecting yet another plant but these are so tolerant of abuse and independent in the face of neglect that even a random one by one planting starts to build up. A better gardener would keep track of their names just in case they started to accumulate like this, because of course people appreciate a name when you share a piece, but so far that’s been hit or miss and hopefully nobody asks about names on the ‘other ones’. I’m sure it will be fine, right?
Epimedium ‘Pink Champagne’ is one which shows off more than a few of my others. They’re all interesting things but not every one shows off at a distance greater than ten feet.
What else… The native Virginia bluebells are back and should be reseeding and slightly weedy even though they’re not. I don’t think my garden is quite the fertile lowland woodland which they prefer and that’s fine I guess since a mass of them could be a floppy mess once they’re finished.
Mertensia virginica is a beautiful native bluebell which will go dormant once things get warm and it goes to seed. This should fill a woodland, I should try convincing someone to do this in their garden since mine is a little too small for sheets of blue.
And that’s about it. Besides chopping things down and just enjoying spring flowers there’s been an unusually suburban focus on the lawn this year. I’m actually somewhat embarrassed to admit that the lawn was mowed twice this week to keep up with the rain and fertilizer and at one point I even sprayed for a few of the worst weeds. Usually the lawn is a burden (and I’m not ruling that out come July) but so far this year I’m slightly obsessed. Maybe this will give me a little more street credit in a way flowers and tiny bulbs do not and maybe that’s what I needed in my life even if I didn’t think it. Never fear though. Enough weeds remain that I am still safe from any Scott’s endorsements even if there might not be enough to keep the lawn haters satisfied. Actually while I’m at it in confessing to untrendy things, I might as well mention the privet hedge I’m starting. Yes, privet is invasive in the south so shouldn’t be planted, but here it’s been a standard for at least the last hundred years so I think I can sneak in under some kind of grandfather clause. It’s not native, but neither am I, it’s overly formal to keep trimmed, but that’s what I want, it’s kind of boring and maybe a monoculture, but… we will see. I have a weakness for formal hedging even though natural and native is more PC, so until this fever breaks we will see if a privet hedge was what I needed.
In the future a privet hedge will possibly surround last year’s pumpkin patch. As with everything here it’s a work in progress.
In all honesty there’s a real strong chance this hedge thing will come to naught since when I say ‘planted a privet hedge’ I really mean I stuck in a few pieces of privet trimmings along a line where I’d like a hedge. It’s probably too late in the year to do that. I probably used the wrong pieces. I did nothing to prep the soil or care for things afterwards. Maybe it can’t even be done but I tried it anyway and in a nutshell this latest idea pretty much sums up how everything in this garden rolls. Bad ideas, executed poorly and haphazardly and then put off for longer than they should be and then recognized as the work of an idiot but somehow enough things work out to make it all fun again. At least it gives me something to ponder while sitting around, and in May a little sitting around is almost always a good thing.
I hope you can enjoy a little sitting around yourself, and that May is off to a good start. Perhaps May is when this blog becomes more regular and this blogger rejoins friends in the blogging community but a reality check says August is probably more realistic. The heat of summer has a way of rewriting and shortening the to do list and until that happens 😉
sorta like suburbia 
I’m with you on the Sakonnet Plant Fair, although I do hate crowds, but for plants it’s worth it. I had family commitments so that’s my excuse. I have 4 tulips growing in the Herb Garden which has the grit added to it and that’s it. Daffodils are doing well here so that’s what I focus on. Neither Fritillaria meleagris or F. pallidiflora has ever lasted for me, and I would have thought the meleagris would like my wet conditions but they begged to differ. Didn’t even show up for one spring. The pallidiflora would at least come back once or twice before disappearing which made me try three times because I love that shade of yellow.
Remind me to find a few of the snake fritillaria for you, or collect some seed. The bulbs don’t dry well, so it might be that you started off on the wrong foot with them. Apparently they even grow well in a boggy meadow which is probably what your back lawn is like this spring!
I’m having a problem sticking to any kind of regular blog posts myself – I sympathize! The tulips are lovely, and I’m happy to hear you are thoroughly enjoying spring.
Thanks Tracy, it’s almost a month later and I’m finally responding to comments so I appreciate your sympathy. It really helps with the guilt of being so slow! In my head I imagine soon having more time as I give up on having “the perfect garden” for this year, and graduation parties and school things wind down… but then I tend to get lazy and do more porch sitting 😉
I’m afraid my blog posts are rather infrequent these days. Life gets in the way. Plus the fact that I’ve said it all before. What a fabulous collection of tulips. They are an extravagance for me as most of them don’t come back after one season of glory. And now I spend spring in France there would be nobody to look at them.
Spring in sunny France sounds like an acceptable trade for a few missing tulips. I’m here looking at the chilly drizzle outside and it seems like an even better trade, although here the trip south only brings us to Florida and humidity, snakes, alligators, and overly sharp vegetation. I always appreciate your posts, even when the same plants are visited each season.
Great photos. Thank you. Your Pink Impression specially caught my eye. After years of disappointment with pink tulips, never quite finding one that really sings, I saw this one used extensively at the Arundel Castle tulip festival a few weeks ago. Photos don’t do it justice. It’s the perfect pink tulip if you have space.
I envy your ease with beautiful epimediums. Every single one I ever planted myself was dead within weeks.
Next, your privet hedge, out of fashion here in the UK, dismissed as reminiscent of gloomy, dark Victorian shrubberies. Where do such trite clichés come from? It’s a great plant, the standard suburban front garden hedging of my childhood. The scent of its flowers, when not clipped to death, brings back sunny afternoons at the end of the school term in July. In France landscape architects use it next to busy roads, where it grows and flowers unchecked, a beautiful sight.
Regards,
Ian Thompson.
Thanks Ian, hopefully my long delay in responding hasn’t tarnished your thoughtful comments!
Yes, for as much as I hate to pick favorites ‘Pink Impression’ might be the one. On a sunny day when the blooms open wide it’s a glorious sight, and even a single bloom will call you over.
-and I’m sorry for your epimedium struggles. I thought they were easier but others have also mentioned having trouble with them, and I guess I should be more grateful there’s one plant other than dandelions and plantain which grows well for me. Hopefully this doesn’t become yet one more plant which I say is easy and then picks up the challenge and becomes impossible to grow…
Tentatively I will agree with your fondness for privet, I would use a stronger tone if it were a different plant, but here the plant and the gardener run the risk of being on the wrong end of a beating with the non-native, invasive club if they get too supportive. Further south in the US I have seen it spread into the woods, but here after over a century of cultivation it hasn’t become an issue. It’s so useful for an excellent, easy hedge and like you say I think it’s unfairly fallen out of favor. I also have memories of walking along the scented blooming hedges on the way to the beach or making our “soups” in the backyard, complete with mud and grass and a seasoning of privet berries… but I suspect that is not as common a memory.
All the best, Frank
I hope you’re planning to come to the ACNARGS member only plant sale on Saturday, May 17th. We’re at Myers Park in Lansing again. Sale starts at 10:30. Dish to pass at 12:30-ish, though I’ll bet hungry folks will eat earlier.
Carol
🙂 Thanks for the comment. As you know we came, we saw, we bought, and then we ate! Perhaps over the last two weeks there should have been more planting, but….
Yes, the plant sale is history. Glad you came! Plenty to plant but the weather is NOT cooperating but it has extended our window of opportunity for getting things in the ground. Today was the Finger Lakes Plant Sale. I decided I was only going if it was rainy. So yes, I went. Got cold and wet but returned happy with a few more plants to put in.
Good for you, and good to see you at the sale. There was less rain here today and I managed to get a few more things in the ground. I want to say only one plant was a new purchase, the rest were overwintered things so I think that’s less incriminating?
Good to see your post, Frank. You have been a bit AWOL, but most likely busy in a myriad of directions.
Your garden looks beautiful in all seasons and I’m amazed how successful your tulips are in returning every year. Btw, the daffs you sent are looking splendid and I thank you every time I see them. 🙏🏼
I am so happy winter is behind us and with the weather warming, the emergence of all things green, I’m thrilled. I don’t have the physical ability to keep up with nature, but am grateful for every bloom and plant that I put in all those years ago.
🙂 I’m glad the daffodils did well for you!
Yes, I think I’m looking at the garden and also considering what’s worth the work and what’s too much for too little. So far the vegetable garden is the most at-risk area. I don’t know if replacing tomatoes and beans with dahlias is less work, but at least I don’t feel as guilty seeing flowers in need of deadheading… vs rotting tomatoes!
What a wonderful tulip show! I laughed at the 2026 to-do list already 🙂
Thanks! Isn’t it funny how quickly the to-do list grows 😉
Hi Sorta (and Kathy P.,)
Lots looking wonderful in your garden, but oh those Tulips! I am hoping this year the few that I planted bloom as we have a fox family living next door and the 6 kits plus an adult come over a couple of times a day to romp. Have found one bunny body so far.
I have not had great luck with F. pallidiflora either but I plan on trying again this year. I have had excellent luck with F. raddeana and superb results with F. thunbergii.
I just planted Epimedium ‘Pink Domino’ next to Helleborus ‘Kingston Cardinal,’ after seeing something similar on the Avant Gardens blog. I am an Epimedium junky and last year bought an especially large size variety called ‘Wine Spritzer’ from Issima. E. ‘Crime Scene’ and ‘Dark Beauty’ (pictured) are two favorites with nicely colored foliage.
As for Syneilisis, I paid top dollar for a fancy one (Kikko) 15 years ago from PDN. Does really well for me but its interesting variation lasts about 5 minutes. Only visible when it first comes up. So I would see if you can get more info as to how long those special characteristics last.
I am with Kathy P. when it comes to the Sakonnet Plant Fair. I am creating excuses, but the truth is I am never going to drive 2 days to buy plants. Mostly it would just be nice to meet all the people I only know from their online presence.
Nice to catch up on your garden even if it’s not very often.
Linda B.
[image: Epimedium Dark Beauty.jpeg]
Thanks for the update, I’ve been missing your posts and it’s good to hear a little of what you’ve been up to. I bet bet the road construction is just a memory and the new “pond” area is a serene spot to balance all the greens of a new season. Haha, I always think of you when I add a new sedge or epimedium! I don’t know for sure, but I think that’s a compliment, and slowly both are becoming more common here as the shady areas grow.
I tried to get your image to show up but I’m going to blame wordpress and say it can’t be done. Of course it’s probably me, but coincidentally ‘Dark Beauty’ is one of the epimediums I grow! It struggles and for some reason the rabbits here (and I also want to note we are lacking foxes and coyotes this year and it shows) love to nibble it until the foliage finally matures. I have high hopes though, and at least it still shows each spring.
Enjoy your spring and I hope the rains have made their way to your garden. Oh and thanks for mentioning the Avant Gardens blog, every summer container I have ever put together is just pitiful compared to their wonders. What inspiration!
All the best, Frank
I’m always cheered up by your posts. Your tulips are amazing and you are fortunate they return–more like annuals here. The shredded umbrella plant is pretty awesome. Enjoy your beautiful garden.
Thanks Susie. I’ve seen you enjoying spring as well and love the peonies an iris! I thought of you the other day when I found a gardenia at the nursery. It was listed as “hardy” but pricier than I wanted to experiment with 🙂
No need to tempt the weather gods by buying that “hardy’ plant! Gardenias are in bloom here and the fragrance is wonderful.
I can relate to blogging guilt and fatigue… and the Virginia Bluebells – I planted some a few years ago and am amazed when they emerge. But what little “gardening” I do, I can barely start yet because it’s still too cold to disturb the sleeping bees and butterflies.
Your tulips and daffodils are beautiful. I, too, am intrigued by the shredding umbrella plant. Gardens come alive at last.
Haha, you can’t start because it’s too early and I am stuck because I was too late! I piled a bunch of trimmings and old grass stems meaning to run them through the shredder, but I think some bumblebees have found it to their liking and are nesting there… so I guess I’m stuck with a pile of garden debris back there. Oh well. I may grow a pumpkin or something over to disguise it. As I’m sure you’ll agree bugs and bees are much more interesting than mulch 🙂
It’s always a pleasure to catch up on your garden Frank.😃 I am sure, with fingers as green as yours, your privet hedge will thrive. The tulips all look lovely – especially those in the day lily farm. The shredded umbrella plant and yellow fritillary are lovely too, and if I ever have enough shade that isn’t too dry they will both be on my planting list. I think I need to give my epimediums a good talking to… they obviously do not know they are supposed to be so trouble free. Two are doing well, but the others barely produce a flower or two. As for the plant fair, a shame you missed this one but I am sure there will be another one coming up soon…. 😉
I’m slightly optimistic for my privet cuttings. There’s been a good amount of rain and they’re not dead yet… although I doubt they’ve rooted, so we will see!
I sometimes fantasize about bringing my garden back to a clean slate full of sunshine and free of the mistakes I commit each year. Shade is nice, but full sun beds filled with iris and summer blooms is more exciting! I would just have to get braver with the saw… and less free with the planting of innocent tree seedlings and tiny starts of shrubs 😉
Ha! I took pictures for and started no fewer than three posts in April, none of which came to fruition! The comments here show we are in good company!
My little tulip bed started blooming in earnest over the weekend. I give it a rating of “meh” this year. I really need to place my tulip order before October to get what I want! (Duh!) I do envy your ability to grow unprotected tulips! Those red and coral ones in the picture are stunning — no name? I will of course offer you my bulbs again this year when they’re done blooming. Maybe you won’t find them “meh”. If I ever write a blog post about them, you will see!
Apparently I planted 10 Fritillaria meleagris bulbs in the fall of 2023. I don’t remember seeing ANY bloom last year. This year, three showed up. Again, meh — the dull-ish purple just doesn’t show up well against the leaf mulch.
You know who has some fairly fertile woodland, though not “lowland”, right? Of course, same person also has deer who haven’t read the “resistant” lists!
Ugh I just saw the title page for your blog post on Presby… must. finish. updating. my. blog. first. lol, it’s such a struggle! Maybe I can get a two for one if you get the tulip edition posted as well 😉
Those little fritillaria are funny in that they’re nothing for years and then suddenly they reach critical mass and are amazing… without having to get down on your knees and resort to a closeup! My problem is I planted them under that magnolia and they get lost amongst the fallen purple petals. Yeah. That will never change so whatever.
I’ve had deer stroll through a couple times in the last month. I’m not happy. I hope it’s not the start of something worse because hunting season is a long way off.
The tulip post JUST went up!
Good to hear from you, Frank, and to know that you’re doing well and enjoying your spring display which is truly awesome. The tulips are fab but I also enjoy your perennials. As for the lawn – why not opt for a wildflower lawn? Then the whole lawn business becomes a lot more relaxing. Happy spring days!
Hi Annette! Isn’t it a wonderful time of year? We’ve had endless rain and it’s made everything lush which I know isn’t always the case. Don’t fret for me overthinking a weed-free lawn! It really is more a meadow than it is grass, I’m just trying to control a few obnoxious things which are taking over, probably because the rain has things more vigorous than usual.
it has been the same here, lots of rain and the garden has never looked better. as we have a wildflower lawn and meadow I’m very relaxed in lawn matters. happy June 🙂
The tulips are fab! And you’ll probably have a privet hedge before you know it. My mothers hedge always got away from her and she would just say tree form it!