Warmer weather has finally arrived and with it the early spring-flowering bulbs. These so-called minor bulbs are such a welcome sight after our Midwest winters.

Crocus seiberi ‘Tricolor’ around Sutphin Fountain.

The three colors in ‘Tricolor’.

Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) still make me happy no matter how many years I’ve seen their spring show.

Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) are very happy little bulbs.

Even on a gray day their bright yellow color absolutely glows.

The honey bees love them. Look at all the pollen on the bees leg.

The bees tended to take flight just as I was ready to snap the photograph.

Bee butt.

Now get your butt to the IMA and enjoy this glorious weather.

Well that’s what the weather report says for tomorrow. Things are starting to pop so get out to the IMA gardens and walk around. Most of the snow is melted!

Snowdrops behind Deer-Zink are blooming.

Some of the Anemone blanda ‘Blue Shades’ in the beds around the Sutphin Fountain are very close to blooming.

Witchhazels are blooming all over the place.

Perennials are pushing new growth.

And I saw winter aconite that will be in bloom tomorrow. Hellebores should be showing color too.

So much happening. More later.

To judge by the few blogs I’ve posted about happenings out here in the world of horticulture, one would think that I’m always whistling Zippity-do-dah in the peaceable kingdom. Wonderful as nature is and as much as I love my job, sometimes things do not go as hoped. So here is a review of some of the disagreeable occurrences that occurred in the garden this year, including a warning about what lurks among the plants.

(via IMA Flickr 2004)

Bambi is a browser. This does not mean that deer tend to thumb through magazines at the newsstand instead of making a purchase. No, they browse in the sense of “chew off the buds and tender twigs of trees and shrubs.” Sure, deer eat grass and hostas and other herbaceous plants, but they have a fondness for woody plants enjoying the young stems and sweet buds of fruit trees and shrubs – I need those buds for next spring’s blossoms. And they like to take naps in the flower beds. So, if you see Odocoileus virginianus out in the gardens, please suggest they trot back over to 100 Acres or Crown Hill. Read the rest of this entry »

Had thought I learned all I needed to know about geometry back in the 10th grade. Repeated visits to the Miller House over the past few years have forced me to further appreciate another aspect of the topic, with Dan Kiley’s use of the medium in creating his masterpiece of modernist landscape design.

View through the orchard

Though much of landscape architecture involves the careful manipulation of spaces, the gardens at Miller House represent one of the best examples of the craft. Working closely with the home’s architect, Eero Saarinen, Kiley laid out a plan which closely reflects and reinforces the strict geometry of the residence. As with his many other commissions, Mr. Kiley used a limited palette of plants. This was not to be a garden of show-stopping color and horticultural diversity. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that there can be no doubt that we are in the clutches of the evil Wanda Winter, I feel the strong pull to immerse myself into the new plant and seed catalogues and in the process actually escape and embrace winter.

“Both escape and embrace winter?”, you ask. My, you are a nosy one. I’ll be nice and not tell you to mind your own damn business. For me searching through the catalogues this time of year really is an escape and an embrace of winter. Read the rest of this entry »