And then there were two.

Big excitement at the farm this weekend! Sitting by the big window on Saturday morning, I was taking the first slow morning I've had in about 3 months, I saw that the bee hive was exceptionally busy. Well I thought, it's a warm sunny morning, all the trees are blooming, my plan was to put on the honey super that I had meant to get on earlier in the week. The bees had another plan. I was out in the barn getting the super and was deluged by bees within moments of opening the boxed and plastic wrapped super of drawn comb. I knew right then that something was up, ran back to the hive and sure enough they had swarmed. I had missed the moment! I wandered around a bit looking for the bees and saw them up in the apple tree that Frank had carefully pruned for me this winter.

I ran and got the ladder, suited up and tried to figure out how I was going to catch this gang. Of course I don't have a tall enough ladder so had to do some gymnastics to get up high enough. Climbed up at least 4 times with unsuccessful attempts to catch them. After about 2 hours I finally got them settled into a new home and as of today it looks as if they will stay. Pure luck, that I was home, that I noticed the ruckus at the old hive and that they were in a place where they could be caught!

It took me another 2 hours to calm down enough to continue with my day! What a thrill, perched up in a tree with bees buzzing all around! What a miracle! What a great weekend!

Here's the first truck loading of the season, heading off to Wayland, Massachusetts. Orders are flying out quickly, it is always amazing that 8 months of preparation leads up to these 3 or 4 weeks of plant insanity! The weather is cooperating and that is great.

Check this out, I know just a lowly petunia but so pretty, it just about glows : Merlin Blue Morn, I love it!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was gorgeous! I have Sunday watering duty but the day was so pretty I didn't mind. It was doubly nice because the predicted rain never materialized. That's good, we need lots of sunny weekends this year for May! It is still running cold here, only 40 in the morning and yesterday with a brisk breeze off the ocean. We made a field trip to a local retail garden center last week and it was an amazing sight. (I don't get out much.) I watched a woman at a giant table of beautiful blooming geraniums as she specifically selected the smallest, no bloom, one measly bud! What is that about?

My darling daughter made me the most delectable lunch for Mother's Day. Home-made spelt biscuits with rhubarb & strawberry compote, sauteed kale with vidalia onion and some of our fresh eggs with a dash of fresh sage and gruyere, YUM! I ate 3 biscuits! We had a glorious long walk along the ocean. Then came home and I went off to spray the greenhouses! Not my favorite job but a necessity.

Truck runs all this week will give us the needed space to finish up the last plantings, this spring has gone really fast. Now compacted into 3 weeks of shipping because the weather has been so cold. The dang heat is still running!

eucomis

Eucomis comosa, this is a great plant, so exotic looking and the pale green color marked with burgundy is so rich. I potted this up in mid January, a tad early but the bulbs I had kept over were starting to sprout so I figured I'd follow the timing they wanted. Needless to say it's a bit early for New England spring. I wanted to put it on my counter for a recent dinner party and had it all prettied up and sitting there late afternoon. I went out to cut some quince blossoms and when I came back inside ---what was that smell? Ugh, something of a cross between propane gas and rotting fruit. You guessed it, Eucomis aka Pineapple Lily, definitely an out door plant, now gracing my back door porch. P.U. I got the original bulb maybe in 2000 at the old Heronswood in Washington State. I made field trips to the nursery for several years while my daughter was in school in Olympia and combined visits to my brother and sister-in-law on the Olympic penisula. What a great plant spot!!!! It was such a great place to visit to see all the gardens and so many interesting plants from so many far flung places. Now we do get to hear from Dan Hinkley in Garden Design and that is great but the nursery and gardens were so personal it was as if you were walking around with an old friend.

Of course, one great thing about the gloomy Washington fall is that the moist overcast lighting is perfect for viewing and photographing plants! I also remember coming around a corner into a garden with a large patch of Phygelius New Sensation with a backdrop of Fuchsia m. aurea absolutely glowing in the rain. It's raining now reminding me of these glorious flowers in the mist.

Rough Week

That's Katie with the last hanger to go on the truck! It's been a rough week at wit's end, we had torrential rain at the beginning of the week, that is always hard to work in. The greenhouse is like a giant drum that amplifies the pelting sounds. Plants still looking good, the sun came out just in time to avoid stretching. The mega pansy hangers went to their spring home in Manchester NH at Anheuser Busch . I know they will be very happy there! They are in a cold pocket so they don't change the hangers out for the summer until June.

Shipping has begun and not a moment too soon, there are a bunch of zinnia seedlings waiting patiently for their potting. I like to try for a sunny stretch when they get planted so they can take right off and not stretch. The vines are all planted too. We had a cold night on Wednesday and some of the tips of the dahlias took a hit despite being covered. That hurts but they had to be outside to make way for more tender seedling transplants.

Tragedy struck in the chicken coop on Wednesday night also, we thought all the girls were closed in but 2 of the wiley RI reds never came in to roost. Amelia heard a blood curdling cry in the night and sure enough one is missing and the second one has a big tear at the base of her comb. She was milling around under the forsythia dazed and confused. I put her in the coop and fed her some moist mash and she did seem a bit better by bedtime last night. That combined with Tiny, our hen pecked underchicken who also requires special feeding, has lent drama to the formerly soothing existence of the backyard chickens. Ah the trials of agriculture! That's Tiny on the left and poor Henrietta with a head ache on the right.