What would Jane Austen Grow?

Thank goodness for 2 consecutive days of sunshine. Now if the temperature would rise above 60 for two consecutive days we’d be set. As a garden store owner, this is the most depressing spring I’ve experienced. As a lover of nature and order I will say I have enjoyed this spring. Everything has bloomed in the proper sequence: Snowdrops, Crocus, Magnolias, Plums, Pears, Cherries and Crabapples. There has been no explosion of blooms with 3 things blooming at once. The flowers have lasted forever, not blasting out in a heat wave. I don’t remember seeing Daffodils this late in April before. Now if we could just get out and enjoy the flowers without freezing to death.
Mitch and I have Friday and Saturday off together this week. Yeah! This is our last focused session of planting in preparation for “the tour”. When I am gardening, I tend to have attention deficit disorder. I can be extremely focused one minute and the next flit off to some other task. I may think I know exactly what I want to do with a certain bed and then change my mind a dozen times before finalizing the planting. Worse yet for my poor husband, five years later I decide I want to do something entirely different.
What I do know is that I am looking forward to working in my garden with my husband and my dogs. I am anticipating relaxing with a glass of wine after a hard day’s work. I am hoping to make all my artistic ideas come into being. And most of all, I am looking forward to communing with God. I need to remind myself that the process is equally as important as the end result. Make it fun! Perhaps Mitch and I will have tea in the garden in the late morning and discuss our plans. The glass of wine and celebration of our accomplishments is guaranteed.
There are details I need to iron out. I want to have a “reserved for Tipper” sign to mark the spot where she always lays. It is bare ground for a reason, that is her napping spot while I am gardening. Tipper is the “princess” in the family, so I was thinking a tiara would be an appropriate marker. I was thinking a rock but decided that would look like a grave stone, so now I’m trying to come up with another cute, but simple sign. Same for Tumbles, although she is more of a weedy mess than a princess. We’ll see. Until then, I have one more day of work, which includes the shopping for the final plants. 36 hours and I am in heaven in the garden.

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I’m in love! Whether it is with Clematis or Raymond Evison is the question. The recent photos I had seen did not prepare me. This morning I looked at an older book authored by him and was immediately enamored. He looked very much like Colin Firth. Upon meeting him I was immediately charmed. His accent, his looks and his very British pinky ring left me utterly enchanted. I even got an autograph. Mitch is very jealous and is even affecting a British accent. He has nothing to fear. It is all simply horticultural celebrity swooning. I promise I will be back to my normal self soon. I’m going to enjoy the one or two days until then!

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My chocolate vine is blooming and it really does smell like chocolate.  I selected it to have a mostly evergreen vine to screen out the neighbors.  I have always liked the look of Akebia quinnata (aka chocolate vine), so I selected a variegated form.  I still really like it but it does have a few flaws.  It is now more solid green than variegated and the vines grow on the ground along the fence and into the neighbor’s yard.  It got a bit of winter black spot, but the new growth will be good.  Right now it is covered in these odd little flowers that have a wonderful aroma.  I made my husband take a walk through the yard to see if anything needed water.  Hard to believe with all the rain we’ve had, but there were a number of plants in containers that needed a drink.  That walk about gave me the opportunity to see what’s happened in my garden in the last week.  So many more things are blooming.  I have a Crown Imperial (Fritillaria) blooming in my pot of primroses.  It was not there at all the last time I looked.  How did it grow 9 inches in a week?  I have some nice species tulips blooming that I only vaguely remember planting.  The snails have gotten to them like they did to the earlier ones.  My lettuce is getting to the harvest stage and my Anemone nemerosa has spread.  I brought a few more plants home tonight.  I’m not sure when I will be planting them.  Perhaps an evening soon.  I don’t have time to take a day off in the near future, so it will have to be an evening or two or three.  I’m excited to add a Little Lime Hydrangea and a Black Stockings Meadow Rue to my plantings.  Now I just have to figure out a tall, narrow conifer for near the front door, a water bowl out front for the dogs, and a 4-5 foot tall showy, deciduous shrub.

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