Spring has Sprung!

Today I got a sunburn! The weather was very warm and perfect and everything was bursting with life. Yesterday I pruned old roses (very hard!) in the Old Garden and today I made woven arbors to support the sweet peas (not yet in the ground) and delphiniums. The gardens are open and all day long people are wandering past. It is a very different experience then I have ever had- there is a performance aspect to my work all of a sudden! There is a lot of energy and excitement right now and the visitors all seem very appreciative and impressed by the state of the garden. It does look perfect right now.

Above: View of the Orchard under planted with blue Scilla

Flowers of the Aucuba japonica.

One of the arbors I made for the sweet peas.

A cage for the delphiniums to grow through.

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Another style of sweet pea caging, using the thicker, less flexible pieces to make a tower.

Fritillaria imperialis with big, beautiful buds!

Hidcote's Magnolia campbelii just opening.

Currant flowers!

Tulips

Side view of Mrs. Winthrop's Garden.

Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus)

From the Wilderness looking through the Long Walk.

Corydalis

A Magnolia stellata just opening in the Maple Garden.

One of the climbing roses I helped prune.

The vine called Stauntonia hexaphylla is pictured here growing around the windows. This was one of my big jobs last week. I should have taken a before and after picture because this vine was very overgrown, reaching all the way to the second story windows and beyond. There was a lot of dead wound through it as well and the plant matter stuck out from the building by 3 feet or so and was covering the window openings. If you can imagine that, then you can see what a huge job it was to get it so tidy and civilized again!